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Zell Wants End to Web's Free Ride
Washington Post ^ | April 7, 2007 | By Frank Ahrens and Karl Vick

Posted on 04/07/2007 6:30:35 PM PDT by DeaconBenjamin2

It's time for newspapers to stop giving away their stories to popular search engines such as Google, according to Samuel Zell, the real estate magnate whose bid for Tribune Co. was accepted this week.

In conversations before and after a speech Zell delivered Thursday night at Stanford Law School in Palo Alto, Calif., the billionaire said newspapers could not economically sustain the practice of allowing their articles, photos and other content to be used free by other Internet news aggregators.

"If all of the newspapers in America did not allow Google to steal their content, how profitable would Google be?" Zell said during the question period after his speech. "Not very."

Newspapers have allowed Google to use their articles in exchange for a small cut of advertising revenue, but search engines also help to distribute their content to wider online audiences. Google and Yahoo have financial arrangements with wire services, such as the Associated Press, to provide news stories and photos. Yesterday, Google settled a copyright-infringement lawsuit with Agence France-Presse, which had alleged that Google posted news summaries, headlines and photos without permission.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
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1 posted on 04/07/2007 6:30:36 PM PDT by DeaconBenjamin2
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To: DeaconBenjamin2

Go for Zell and make your LA Times die fast than ever before HELLO


2 posted on 04/07/2007 6:32:46 PM PDT by SevenofNine ("We are Freepers, all your media belong to us, resistence is futile")
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To: DeaconBenjamin2

Yep, that’ll save them. Great plan. /s


3 posted on 04/07/2007 6:33:35 PM PDT by somemoreequalthanothers (All for the betterment of "the state", comrade)
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To: SevenofNine
Hey, what a great idea. Folks won’t pay 75 cents to read the tripe these papers are pushing - so if they cut off internet access and then NOBODY will be reading that swill.

Yeah, go ahead, Zell, I dare you.

4 posted on 04/07/2007 6:35:35 PM PDT by Fido969 ("The hardest thing in the world to understand is income tax." - Albert Einstein)
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To: SevenofNine
The Washington Post and LA Times both thought Free Republic was killing their on-line readership.

So they sued.

In the end they lost, but FR quit posting their articles for the most part.

Both papers lost the vast number of on-line referrals FR was bringing them.

This Zell guy probably ought to talk to some of the internet marketing people at the LA Times before he buys them out. They used to believe what he believes and it really hurt them to attack other users.

5 posted on 04/07/2007 6:37:09 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: DeaconBenjamin2

LA Times is dyin’ and this guy is fishing. Ah well, he’s a real estate developer isn’t he, so he can always level the place and sell to the Muzzies for a Mosque.


6 posted on 04/07/2007 6:37:42 PM PDT by rockinqsranch (Dems, Libs, Socialists...call 'em what you will...They ALL have fairies livin' in their trees.)
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To: rdb3; chance33_98; Calvinist_Dark_Lord; PenguinWry; GodGunsandGuts; CyberCowboy777; Salo; Bobsat; ..

7 posted on 04/07/2007 6:38:27 PM PDT by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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To: Fido969

He want get rid of chicago Cubs probably one thing that keep Chicago Tribune afloat LOL!

go figure


8 posted on 04/07/2007 6:43:26 PM PDT by SevenofNine ("We are Freepers, all your media belong to us, resistence is futile")
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To: DeaconBenjamin2

“If all of the newspapers in America did not allow Google to steal their content, “

They would disappear and some bright person would start a few more Web-only news sources.

maybe hire the reporters from LATimes and WAPO?


9 posted on 04/07/2007 6:50:44 PM PDT by DBrow (DBrow(x);DBcol(y))
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To: DeaconBenjamin2

Mr. Zell wishes to be paid for his content in the Trib & LATimes. He does not have a clue how the Internet works. Just delink the two papers from Drudge and see what happens.


10 posted on 04/07/2007 6:52:42 PM PDT by gpapa
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To: DeaconBenjamin2

Short-sighted.

Google News is an aggregator — they don’t host content, but link to it. If Google links to your story, you get the more hits and the ad revenue that comes with them. If you can’t make more money from more readers, then it’s not Google that’s the problem.

Look at FR. Different outlets have different rules. For outlets that only allow excerpts, the experts drive more readers their way. FR complies. For the orgs that allow articles to be posted in full, frankly, I don’t see the wisdom in that. Nor for the orgs that don’t allow links at all.


11 posted on 04/07/2007 6:57:29 PM PDT by ReignOfError (`)
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To: DeaconBenjamin2

I wonder how many people in LaLaLand still read?


12 posted on 04/07/2007 6:57:35 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: Cicero
"I wonder how many people in LaLaLand still read" ENGLISH?

There......fixed it.

13 posted on 04/07/2007 7:00:00 PM PDT by goodnesswins (We need to cure Academentia)
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To: Cicero

English?


14 posted on 04/07/2007 7:00:02 PM PDT by DeaconBenjamin2
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To: DBrow
They would disappear and some bright person would start a few more Web-only news sources.

maybe hire the reporters from LATimes and WAPO?


I'm working on it. Really!

But, regarding that last part, with my idea, the reporters would be working for themselves.
15 posted on 04/07/2007 7:00:23 PM PDT by adorno
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To: DeaconBenjamin2

Darn, the headline lead me to believe Zell Miller was going to challenge James Webb to a duel!


16 posted on 04/07/2007 7:00:26 PM PDT by operation clinton cleanup
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To: goodnesswins

Hey, that was directed to me!


17 posted on 04/07/2007 7:01:19 PM PDT by DeaconBenjamin2
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To: DeaconBenjamin2
Interesting take. He's operating from a real estate standpoint, where they ain't making more real estate, so you get land somebody else needs, and charge what they'll pay. The big problem with this is that news is not copyrightable. Anybody can go to a trial, a war, or a city council meeting and report on it. If you didn't use an AP article, you could find the same information from a zillion different sources.

Also, probably 85% of the news is manufactured. All sports is manufactured news. Everything in the "Life and Leisure" section of the paper is manufactured news. All celebrity news is manufactured news. 85% of the business articles are press releases from companies.

If the Dallas Morning News put an embargo on internet entities carrying their coverage of the Dallas Cowboys, would it really make any difference? You can go to Fox, ABC, NBC, CNN, ESPN, the Dallas Cowboys website, or any of several hundred different sources to find more information about the Dallas Cowboys than you could ever digest.

The simple fact is they're not dealing with a product where the flow can be restricted.

18 posted on 04/07/2007 7:03:19 PM PDT by Richard Kimball
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To: DeaconBenjamin2; nickcarraway; stockpirate; Brilliant; PilloryHillary; Beelzebubba; Cindy; ...

Attitudes toward intellectual property rights have been temporarily insane for 10 years or so and may be regaining their sanity.

Information never really did want to be free.

Nor should it have.

While manual labor is worthy and productive, the Book of Proverbs refers repeatedly to the wise words of a man’s mouth being—in many cases—what makes him worthy of his wages.


19 posted on 04/07/2007 7:04:44 PM PDT by The Spirit Of Allegiance (Public Employees: Honor Your Oaths! Defend the Constitution from Enemies--Foreign and Domestic!)
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To: DeaconBenjamin2

Love it!

A self-imposed poison pill.

Good riddance.


20 posted on 04/07/2007 7:05:31 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Turning the general election into a second Democrat primary is not a winning strategy.)
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