The Hamburg declaration
Newspaper publishers have asked the European Commission to
improve the copyright protection afforded to newspaper content. In June European
Publishers' Council (EPC) and the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) gathered
newspaper executives together and signed what they are calling the Hamburg
declaration: "Numerous providers are using the work of authors, publishers
and broadcasters without paying for it. Over the long term, this threatens the
production of high-quality content and the existence of
independent journalism. (Looks like they are blaming Google News and similar
services ...). For this reason, we advocate strongly urgent
improvements in the protection of intellectual property on the Internet (They
don't offer specific proposals)...."
Full text of the declaration
And Google's reaction? See the
official blog post, which pretty much says: Shut up or
use robots.txt ...
Also see:
Google to newspapers: Put up or shut up (L.A.
Times) and
Save journalism, online newspaper publishers beg EC
(The Register)
