Germany is expected to pass a law that allows newspapers charge search engines and news aggregators for linking to their content, the Financial Times reports this morning.
The law, which is expected to come into effect in summer 2013, could also have significant implications for content marketers who frequently use copyrighted material as a source or embellishment for their work.
While this type of content is frequently used by not-for-profits such as NGOs who generally backlink to the source, commercial entities generally use this content to drive traffic and interaction to their own online offerings.
The National Newspapers of Ireland (NNI) recently called for EU-level action to prevent what it called "piracy" of its content. And it is well know that The Journal is in the sights of all of Ireland's biggest media companies. While The Journal is generating its own content, it sources a relatively small amount of the primary information yet sells advertising around this output. The German Bill is aimed at securing some of this revenue for the information sources, ie the original publishers.
Existential crisis
It seems inevitable that the existential crisis being experienced by newspapers will sooner or later mean a clearer distinction being made between content providers and content sources. And a tightening of the rules around revenue generation from third-party sources could well impact on content marketers who are, ultimately, also trying to generate revenue by a similar means even if they are not actually generating advertising revenue.
Günter Krings, an MP in Angela Merkel’s CDU, is quoted by the FT calling the German initiative the “little brother” of copyright law. “Just like that which protects the rights of a songwriter or music company, ancillary copyright levels the playing field between print publishers and search engines and aggregators,” he said.
The FT says if German publications get to share revenue from ad space sold alongside listings of their articles, then France, which is considering similar rules, and Italy could follow suit. That could soon become the thin end of the wedge.
Some German MPs oppose the initiative and while amendments are expected to the overall thrust of the Bill is unlikely to change, according to the FT.
Google is also resisting, warning that, “the law would hit every internet user in the country as searching for and finding information will be severely disrupted”.
But publishers, concerned about plummeting revenues - down 20% between 2000 and 2009 - say an unviable business model is a "danger to a free press”.
However, Germany's Justice Minister does not expect the proposal to be the salvation of the industry. She hopes publishers' royalty demands will be moderate - possibly based on a licencing arrangement.
Moderate or not, content marketers with foresight will need to keep abreast of the issue. If the German Bill becomes a global template, which is quite common in legislative development, the threat of litigation for first-time offenders may be slim but the constraints it could put on their work could be considerable.
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