Should newspapers sue Google and Yahoo as a class action?

[Billy Monday]

Would that help stop the bleeding by giving newspapers a cut of the gigantic profits of Google and Yahoo?

I can see it happening:

Newspapers band together as a consortium, seeking huge damages from Google and Yahoo. It would accuse those sites of making huge profits by circulating news produced by newspapers (news those sites do not own).

A settlement would entitle newspapers to a cut of those companies' past and future profits, enough to relieve a lot of the advertising losses suffered by newspapers.

Realistic? Fair?

 

[Bubbler]

Would that help stop the bleeding by giving newspapers a cut of the gigantic profits of Google and Yahoo?

I can see it happening:

Newspapers band together as a consortium, seeking huge damages from Google and Yahoo. It would accuse those sites of making huge profits by circulating news produced by newspapers (news those sites does not own).

A settlement would entitle newspapers to a cut of those companies' past and future profits, enough to relieve a lot of the advertising losses suffered by newspapers.

Realistic? Fair?

Not realistic at all.

 

[Write-brained]

Wow. You're way, way off base here. Just think what would happen to your newspaper if it was removed from the Google and Yahoo search engines. Just think how much your website's hits would go down. And guess what? Hits make money.

Good luck with that.

 

[Moondoggy]

If I'm not mistaken, I remember reading something about several newspapers forming a partnership with Yahoo! to provide content, etc. Yahoo! is allegedly paying a considerable amount for that content. If someone has more knowledge of that situation, please amplify.

 

[Billy Monday]

Wow. You're way, way off base here. Just think what would happen to your newspaper if it was removed from the Google and Yahoo search engines. Just think how much your website's hits would go down. And guess what? Hits make money.

Good luck with that.

You're missing the point. Right, hits make money, but right now, they're not making enough money to pay for reporters' salaries. Not even close.

Meanwhile, Google and Yahoo, thanks in large part to newspaper content, have generated enough profits to fund our military budget.

In theory, a suit would seek a cut of the profits Google and Yahoo have made off of circulating newspapers' news. It would not ask those sites to quit circulating newspapers' news, just give them their fair cut.

 

[HejiraHenry]

You best hope is that President Clinton II will, after the fashion of Hugo Chavez, nationalize the Internets.

 

[Write-brained]

Wow. You're way, way off base here. Just think what would happen to your newspaper if it was removed from the Google and Yahoo search engines. Just think how much your website's hits would go down. And guess what? Hits make money.

Good luck with that.

You're missing the point. Right, hits make money, but right now, they're not making enough money to pay for reporters' salaries. Not even close.

In theory, a suit would seek a cut of the profits Google and Yahoo have made off of circulating newspapers' news. It would not ask those sites to quit circulating newspapers' news, just give them their fair cut.

My point is if I'm Google or I'm Yahoo I cut off any motherforker who is suing me. So let's say Gannett files suit. Fine. fork you. Good luck with that.

Let's say the stars align and all the newspapers somehow get together and do that. Fine. fork you. We'll run AP.

It's a symbiotic relationship. The search engines might struggle a little but the individual newspapers would suffer even more than they are now.

 

[boots]

It's a nice dream that I don't think will become reality.

 

[rgd]

The July Esquire (the one with Angelina Jolie on the the cover) has a story about a guy suing YouTube and Google for allowing use of his copyrighted material on their sites and searches. He doesn't feel his copyrighted material should be posted next to advertisements for which he doesn't earn a single cent. Viacom is conducting a separate lawsuit and is seeking a cut of advertising dolloars for every time its copyrighted stuff is shown.

If I understand the story correctly, the problem with the suit is there already is a law in which sites such as Yahoo!, Google, YouTube and other such sites are required to take down copyrighted content when requested. And that's exactly what people running those sites seem to do -- they take down copyrighted content when requested. (Why do you think there are no NFL clips on YouTube?) So if a newspaper publisher doesn't want his copyrighted material on those sites, all he or she has to do is tell them. Given that, I'm not sure a class action suit would be too fruitful, as those sites already are required to take down content when requested. And, a quick check of local news on Yahoo! right now shows that the site links directly to newspaper Web sites, which is what we want them to do.

If, however, every newspaper in the country and the AP somehow banded together, then maybe -- just maybe -- things could get interesting.

 

[Bob Cook]

Would that help stop the bleeding by giving newspapers a cut of the gigantic profits of Google and Yahoo?

I can see it happening:

Newspapers band together as a consortium, seeking huge damages from Google and Yahoo. It would accuse those sites of making huge profits by circulating news produced by newspapers (news those sites do not own).

A settlement would entitle newspapers to a cut of those companies' past and future profits, enough to relieve a lot of the advertising losses suffered by newspapers.

Realistic? Fair?

Neither.

Funny, I didn't see anyone suing when newspapers were getting near-monpolistic advertising holds on their own markets.

And the idea is laughable that, even if the extremely unlikely event newspapers sued and won, that suddenly the same penny-pinching corporate executives would start ladling oodles of dollars on reporters.

Newspaper companies made their own bed with their short-sighted management. Unfortunately, that means anyone who works them has to lie in it.

Also, Google and Yahoo made their money first as search engines, not news aggregators. So the idea of proving in court that someone theft of newspaper stories made them what they are is not going to happen.

 

[HejiraHenry]

If, however, every newspaper in the country and the AP somehow banded together, then maybe -- just maybe -- things could get interesting.

Yep, because newspapers would essentially disappear from the face of the Internet earth for the vast majority of users.

Gosh, I can't wait.

 

[fishwrapper]

If I'm not mistaken, I remember reading something about several newspapers forming a partnership with Yahoo! to provide content, etc. Yahoo! is allegedly paying a considerable amount for that content. If someone has more knowledge of that situation, please amplify.

To answer this question:
Yahoo has a agreement with McClatchy. Exclusive rights for foreign and national coverage.
Yahoo, unlike Google, is attempting to provide original or exclusive copy. Big difference.