European Publishers Council Head Says Internet Content Won't Remain Free For Long

Posted on December 7, 2005

European publishers have just about had it with Google, Inc., which they say is making money off of their copyrighted content by using it without permission. The Associated Press reports:

Francisco Pinto Balsemao, the head of the European Publishers Council, is quoted by the AP as saying, The new models of Google and others reverse the traditional permission-based copyright model of content trading that we have built up over the years."

Balsemao also says, "It is fascinating to see how these companies 'help themselves' to copyright-protected material, build up their own business models around what they have collected, and parasitically, earn advertising revenue off the back of other people's content. This is unlikely to be sustainable for publishers in the longer term."

The Agence Press lawsuit against Google News seeks $17.5 million in damages for copyright infringement. Google is also under fire for its plan to digitize the world's books without first obtaining permission to do so, and without paying author royalties. There is a lawsuit pending about the digitization plan, as well.

In his speech, European Publishers Council head Francisco Pinto Balsemao stated that he didn't see how content on the Internet could remain free: that if such massive copyright infringements continue, then all content will go behind a paid wall. We hope he's not right, but as more and more publishers and authors get fed up with copyright infringement and outright theft, that could be the Internet's future.