August 24, 2006 | In Technology, Politics | 2 Comments
Google is facing the danger of being shut out of the Brazil market, and could be fined up to $61 million for refusing to hand over confidential user data to the Brazilian government.
Federal prosecutors in Sao Paulo claim that the Orkut social networking service, an internet property of Google, is being used to promote criminal activity in the South American country, and the search giant has an obligation to hand user data over to Brazilian officials.
But Google maintains that, since its servers are hosted in the U.S., it has no obligation to heed the words of Brazil’s prosecutors, and that the matter can only be dealt with in an American courtroom. The internet giant already triumphed in a court battle against the U.S. Department of Justice earlier this year, getting out of a subpoena that would have seen private user information handed over to government busybodies.
That verdict, which seems to have set a legal precedent for increased privacy, almost guarantees that Google would win a battle against the Brazilian authorities in any U.S. courtroom.
It remains unclear exactly how events will transpire in this transcontinental battle for privacy rights, but Google seems determined not to give up on its principles without a fight. That, at the very least, is a good sign for the freedom-loving internet users of Brazil.
August 17, 2006 | In Business, Technology | 1 Comment
The convenience of up-to-the-minute news is now freely available all over the internet, but that doesn’t mean that the web will replace local TV newscasts, according to a new research study by Crawford Johnson & Northcott.
The research firm conducted a survey of 861 internet users and found that 75% of respondents watch a local TV newscast at least once a week with 52% watching one every day.
“We’ve heard a lot of talk about how the Web is replacing television as a source for news. This indicates that’s not the case at all. Web users as a group watch as much local TV news as anyone else,” said Bob Crawford, a partner with the Crawford, Johnson & Northcott market research firm.
Overall, there’s no doubt that the internet is causing immense changes in the worldwide media landscape, and is putting pressure on television in many ways. Local news programs, however, seem to be immune to many of these changes.
Although useful and convenient, web-based news sites will probably never be able to totally displace the consistent and familiar news format offered by local broadcasters.
August 4, 2006 | In Business, Technology | 2 Comments
Google has recently revealed plans to pay the Associated Press newswire service for the right to aggregate its stories and pictures on news.google.com.
Financial details of the deal were not released but it seems that Google and the AP have been negotiating this new arrangement for a number of months now.
There’s no doubt that the search giant can easily afford this extra little expense, but in the long run, it could end up being a big mistake. Google News depends solely on its ability to aggregate news from other sources, and now that one publisher is getting paid, others will likely demand the same treatment.
One of my websites (TeleClick.ca) has been indexed in Google News for nearly a year now, and I’ve gotten a lot out of it – namely free advertising, respect from other content publishers, and general publicity for my site. But Google has never paid me for my content, and the thought of them doing so has honestly never crossed my mind.
Legally speaking, Google News is covered by the principle of fair use, which allows the authorized reproduction of copyright materials in certain situations. The search giant has stressed this fact repeatedly when fending off legal challenges, but what they don’t seem to realize is that words don’t speak nearly as loudly as actions.
By agreeing to pay off the Associated Press, Google may well have opened some pretty dangerous floodgates, which could easily result in all of its 4500+ content providers demanding payment for their work.
As far as I’m concerned, Google News is a great service as it always has been, and content providers should consider it an honor to be included in this fairly exclusive collection of news websites. They have every right to monetize the traffic they get from Google, but they shouldn’t expect direct payment from the web giant itself.
As it stands now, Google News is a free service for everyone, and it should remain that way.
