Germany is proposing a new idea that they hope will bring more revenue to their dying newspapers. The chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel; the Christian Democrats and the Free Democratic Party, is behind the idea of protecting copyright for journalism that is online. An article in the New York Times claims that the party is trying to "level the playing field with Internet companies like Goggle, which German publishers accuse of exploiting their content to build lucrative businesses without sharing the rewards." The copyright law would allow publishers to charge for the use or mention of their work on the Internet if the website is for commercial means. Like how movies must pay to use artist's songs or product brands. The law would create a whole new market, journalism royalties. Many of the establishments behind the proposed law are large publishers and owners of newspapers. Burkhard Schaffeld, corporate counsel for the German Newspaper Publishers Association, was quoted in the New York Times article saying: “Freedom of information is important. But quality journalism costs money. There is no fundamental right to information for free on the Internet.”
The proposed law would mean that bloggers who have ads on their website would not be allowed to link to articles from newspapers without contacting the news outlet and then negotiating a deal with the journalism royalties society.
To me, it seems like this law would protect print journalism but eliminate a lot of online journalism. Also shouldn't information be free? What do you think?
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