De ce intelegerea dintre Google si publisherii francezi este un lucru rau pentru internet

Ca si background pentru intelegere, e de spus faptul ca ambele procese (cel din Belgia si cel din Franta) au ca punct de plecare niste procese incepute undeva in anii 2005 – 2006 daca imi aduc aminte. Din motive profesionale o sa prefer sa comentez stirea de business din spate si nu situatia juridica din Franta ori din Belgia. Un articol aparut in Gigaom spune lucrurilor pe nume si e un punct de vedere cu care sunt de acord.

 

Internetul e un loc liber. Adica, daca esti mic si iti construiesti un website, google te indexeaza la fel de bine ca pe marii publisheri. La fel se intampla si cu alte companii care-ti scot in fata continutul. Nu ai nicio problema. Totul e sa stii sa te joci cu un sitemap, cu robots.txt sau cu alte asemenea. Si esti acolo. Pur si simplu. Odata cu acordul despre care discutam, se pune in discutie chiar esenta libera a internetului. Daca pana ieri puteai intra in indexul de la google fara bataie de cap, de azi incolo poti ajunge sa ai nevoie de un acord de licentiere a continutului catre google. Consencinta e ca, daca esti mic, o sa fii tratat altfel. Acum, extinde aceasta regula si la alte companii si gandeste-te ca nimeni n-o sa mai incerce sa proceseze continutul websiteurilor de frica unor procese costisitoare. Rezultatul e oarecum simplu: mai multi bani pentru un grup mic de companii, mai putine informatii accesibile online, mai putina inventivitate in mediul online. Si roata se va invarti.

 

“There is little evidence to suggest that ‘paying off’ a party making unreasonable demands will do much more than quiet them for the moment, and they’ll almost inevitably be back for more. And more. And more. Even worse, caving in such situations signals other parties that you may be susceptible to their making the same (or even more outrageous) demands, and this mindset can easily spread from attacking deep-pocketed firms to decimating much smaller companies, organizations, or even individuals.”

 

“France’s complaints regarding Google related to activities that are absolutely part and parcel of the fundamental and fully expected nature of the open Internet when dealing with publicly accessible Web sites [and its] success at obtaining financial and other concessions from Google associated with ordinary search and linking activities sends a loud, clear, and potentially disastrous message around the planet, a message that could doom the open Internet and Web that we’ve worked so long and hard to create.”

 

Director Harvey Weinstein (no relation to Lauren) said in a recent interview that the U.S. should have legislationto make this a reality — and Google is helping that kind of thinking gain momentum.

 

Si mai clara in acest sens este expunerea lui Lauren Weinstein, extrem de clara in privinta viitorului pe care astfel de intelegeri il vor pregati pentru internet.

 

Let’s be very clear. France’s complaints regarding Google related to activities that are absolutely part and parcel of the fundamental and fully expected nature of the open Internet when dealing with publicly accessible Web sites, and pages not blocked by paywalls or limited by robots.txt directives.

 

France’s success at obtaining financial and other concessions from Google associated with ordinary search and linking activities sends a loud, clear, and potentially disastrous message around the planet, a message that could doom the open Internet and Web that we’ve worked so long and hard to create.

 

Because if France can do this with Google, what’s to stop France from the same modus operandi with other firms and sites — or for other countries and entities to follow a similar course?

 

True, it’s the largest firms and sites who are in the bullseye at the moment, but there is little reason to assume that the cancer of trying to extract fees from searching and linking of public sites won’t spread widely down the food chain, in manners largely oblivious to whether or not any associated revenue at all is derived by the targeted sites and site owners.

 

It could be argued that most sites could simply refuse to pay such fees, and instead remove all links and search results relating to the parties demanding public website pay-to-play tribute fees.

 

In the long run though, this will destroy the open, public Web just as effectively, as connectivity and information exchange suffer a death of a thousand, a million, a billion cuts.

 

Da, cred ca presa are nevoie sustinuta de variante noi de finantare. Cred ca are nevoie de inovatie si de pragmatism in depasirea momentului critic din zilele noastre. Si totusi, asta nu inseamna ca trebuie sa se repeada sa ia banii pe care ii poate obtine cel mai usor. Pana la urma, ne-am repezit cu totii sa respingem ACTA, ne-am organizat in randuri ordonate de marsaluitori online, ca sa ajungem astazi sa facem de buna voie acorduri care depasesc ACTA in importanta si consecinte. Nu cumva e ceva gresit in comportamentul asta?

 

Bonus, de final, asa. Pentru sustinatorii acordurilor dintre Google si publisheri, iata cam ce primeste tara in care se semneaza astfel de acorduri. Sursa e TechCrunch.

 

Here’s Google’s breakdown of that partnership:

 

Promote both the publishers’ and Google’s services - Google will advertise its services on the publishers’ media, while the publishers will optimise their use of Google’s advertising solutions, in particular AdWords to attract new readers.

 

Increase publishers’ revenue - by collaborating on making money with content, both via premium models (paywalls, subscriptions), and via advertising solutions such as the AdSense platform and the AdExchange marketplace;

 

Increase reader engagement - by implementing Google+ social tools, including video Hangouts, on news sites, and launching official YouTube channels;

 

Increase the accessibility of the publishers’ content - by collaborating on the distribution of the publishers original content on mobile platforms, in particular smartphones and tablets;

 

Cu alte cuvinte, un acord prin care iti impui la nivel de industrie propriile solutii. Nu cumva zecile de milioane sunt mizilic daca pui in balanta rezultatul obtinut? Dintr-un foc, da la flacara mica publicitatea locala, dezvoltatorii locali de solutii mobile si, fara indoiala deloc de neglijat, toata industria de consultanta asociata.

 

Deci, hai sa facem acord cu Google. E promotie doar, nu? 

 

(Articol de Alin Popescu)