Comments on: Newspapers demand to be paid if you link to them

By: Sergei Richard

Sergei Richard — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 03:29:00 +0000

I used to write for one of those papers, back when it could pay me. The whole industry is in a process of collapse. Print news everywhere is in deep trouble of course, but the Irish media effectively face competition from the entire English-speaking world so it’s hitting harder here than most places.

That should spark innovation, and in rare cases it has. This though… Well it’s inventive. In the same way that escapist fiction is inventive. They seem to be suing reality itself – and using imaginary law to do so.

You can smell the cold, manic sweat.

By: Rob

Rob — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 13:51:00 +0000

Just to be clear, these aren’t just the local papers, these are also the national broadsheets!

By: Lodewijk Gonggrijp

Lodewijk Gonggrijp — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 10:56:00 +0000

White ? That’s racist yo

By: BillStewart2012

BillStewart2012 — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 07:24:00 +0000

Yeah, every few years there’s some business that doesn’t understand how the web works, and also doesn’t understand how their own web server works (e.g. can they just check the REFERER variable), and decides to sue somebody for linking to their site, and takes it to a court where the judge also doesn’t have a clue how the web works or that linking is like the court case citations that the entire legal field depends on.

Wikipedia has a good discussion of the technical and case history issues, such as the 1996 The Shetland Times vs The Shetland News case from Scotland (where one paper was linking directly to the other paper’s stories.)

I seem to remember a much more recent case of some newspaper telling Google News not to link to their articles and then watching their traffic drop radically because Google News complied with their demand.

By: Rusty

Rusty — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 06:50:00 +0000

Since the Terms and Conditions of the newspaper are presumed to be agreed to by reading the content of the newspaper’s website. In other words the ‘terms and conditions’ appear to be simply content on the web. I’m curious as to whether the content of the Terms and Conditions is substantially similar to other Terms and Conditions with a copyright earlier than that provided on the newspaper’s website, and whether the creator of those terms and conditions were consulted, and independently agreed to allow the Irish Times to make use of that content. If not, they may wish to arrange terms related to their copyright. Granted you may be subject to someone presenting evidence of an earlier version of this, but since the content is not presented to readers of the website before they see other content on the web site, and requires the user to agree to the terms and conditions first, it would not be considered a binding contract or EULA.

By: foobar

foobar — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 22:30:00 +0000

File a DMCA notice against their host.

By: Don Martin

Don Martin — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 21:48:00 +0000

What’s a newspaper?

By: colin seeger

colin seeger — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 21:33:00 +0000

Best r riposte I have read in weeks. Nearly blurted coffee all over my computer. Excellent.

By: Donald Petersen

Donald Petersen — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 20:49:00 +0000

Clueless middle-aged white teetotaler here. I think I caught an extra bullet.

By: Peter

Peter — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 20:23:00 +0000

“Thank you for your letter informing me of the price you demand for linking to your website.

Perhaps you are not aware, but sending me a letter has infringed on my copyright to my address. The license fee is $500,000 (Canadian), which I normally waive for noncommercial content, but since we’re clearly two business people transacting business, I will send you an invoice.

In kindness, I have deducted the 1,350 (pounds) price for 50 links to your site, even though I have only used the one, you never know, I might decide to do so in the future. You have two weeks to pay the remainder, or I will be forced to turn this over to collections.”

By: doggo

doggo — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 20:11:00 +0000

That’s pretty (New Balance) harsh, don’t you (Starbucks) think? I mean, just what (Apple) do you think (Nissan) constitutes a (Fender) personality?Anyway, I think (Samsung) you might mean (North Face), “the closest thing many people have to an identity.”

By: MrWednesday7

MrWednesday7 — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 19:41:00 +0000

Speaking as a middle-aged white drunk (occasionally) but never clueless I wholeheartedly concur.

By: fuzzyfuzzyfungus

fuzzyfuzzyfungus — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 19:16:00 +0000

I love the part where they apparently didn’t notice that their own ‘Terms and Conditions’ boilerplate explicitly grants permission to link, so even if their… legally novel… theory of copyright were to hold up, their schedule of fees still wouldn’t.

That is some really impressive work on their part.

By: Hans von Tagg

Hans von Tagg — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 18:47:00 +0000

Thanks for posting these links.

our client was told that “a licence is required to link directly to an online article even without uploading any of the content directly onto your own website”. We would be grateful if you would specify the statutory basis of this claim by return of post.

And that’s just the warm-up. I can’t stop chuckling.

By: Steve Hoefer

Steve Hoefer — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 18:45:00 +0000

I was once faced with similar madness from a merchant. I had posted an article which encouraged people to go buy his awesome things. Each time I mentioned them by name I linked to his site where you could buy them.

Then I received an email from the merchant threatening legal action unless the names of his product and links to his site were removed. I responded, basically ”Send the lawyers!” He never did. A few months later I realized I didn’t want to drive traffic to a litigious jerk, so I pulled all links and references. Which now makes the whole article seem like I had a great idea, since I removed credit from the original creator.

No good deed and all that.

By: nomad411

nomad411 — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 18:43:00 +0000

I’m sure they’d be happy if you could link to their PAPER website :)

By: Christopher Webster

Christopher Webster — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 18:43:00 +0000

They get paid when their website serves an ad. Dolts.

By: Alexander the Cake

Alexander the Cake — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 18:38:00 +0000

A newspaper ripped a youtube video I had recorded and uploaded, and then reposted on their website without my permission. Six years later I’m still waiting for a response.

By: Blaven

Blaven — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 18:36:00 +0000

I’m going with flat-out cluelessness. They don’t understand the size of the web, and that web sites will simply go other places for content rather than pay to link. That’s the challenge with the internet — there is so much competition, that old school newspapers just don’t have anything exclusive or unique anymore. Two-headed calf born outside Dublin? Cool, but I can link to a story about a two-faced cat born in Indonesia the very same day, and for free.

This strategy will cause them to be ignored and isolated.

By: HorseIsAHorse

HorseIsAHorse — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 18:33:00 +0000

I’m a clueless middle-aged drunk. I’m not white, however. I dodged a bullet there.

By: timquinn

timquinn — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 18:31:00 +0000

Because they were not failing fast enough.

By: B E Pratt

B E Pratt — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 18:13:00 +0000

Just wait til Facebook charges you to ‘like’ or to be ‘liked’ by…oh, wait….

By: waetherman

waetherman — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 17:52:00 +0000

I’m a clueless middle-aged white drunk and I object to being lumped in with publishers.

By: tristan eldritch

tristan eldritch — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 17:46:00 +0000

I saw Irish newspaper people discussing this issue an a panel show about a year ago, and came to the conclusion they literally didn’t understand the internet. It’s embarrassing. It’s like YOU should should have to send a check to AMC every time you tell someone that Breaking Bad is awesome. After all the effort we made re-branding the documentary series Father Ted for foreign markets as a “surreal sitcom”, something like this will just blow the whole thing wide open.

By: Cameron Postelwait

Cameron Postelwait — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 17:39:00 +0000

Aside from the lost traffic, it’s a genius SEO strategy!

By: MB44

MB44 — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 17:38:00 +0000

In other news, random internet commenter insisted upon being paid for all of his created content on the web that was linked to. Though some felt his claims to payments were outrageous, others thought they may be warranted. Click the link to his comment below to see how you feel about it.

http://boingboing.net/2013/01/02/newspapers-demand-to-be-paid-i.html

By: Boundegar

Boundegar — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 17:37:00 +0000

Yes but Yahoo didn’t claim to be complete. Their appeal was a curated list of results. Until Google demonstrated that the internet was about a million times bigger (and more interesting) than Yahoo’s database.

By: Daniel Gibson

Daniel Gibson — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 17:26:00 +0000

And around the same time some search engines charged you to be included in their search results. Even Yahoo had a paid ‘priority’ rate ($79 or £79 I think) to guarantee inclusion.

By: nmcvaugh

nmcvaugh — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 17:17:00 +0000

Can I pay not to be linked? I think that’s where their profit stream really lies.

By: Michael D

Michael D — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 17:12:00 +0000

First the Republican Party, then this. When will the suicides end?