Search Engine Land
  • SEO
    • > All SEO
    • > What Is SEO?
    • > SEO Periodic Table
    • > Google: SEO
    • > Bing SEO
    • > Google Algorithm Updates
  • PPC
    • > All PPC
    • > What is PPC?
    • > Google Ads
    • > Microsoft Ads
    • > The Periodic Tables of PPC
  • Focuses
    • > Local
    • > Commerce
    • > Shopify SEO Guide
    • > Content
    • > Email Marketing Periodic Table
    • > Social Media Marketing
    • > Analytics
    • > Search Engine Land Awards
    • > All Focuses
  • SMX
  • Webinars
  • Intelligence Reports
  • White Papers
  • About
    • > About Search Engine Land
    • > Newsletter
    • > Third Door Media
    • > Advertise

Processing...Please wait.

Search Engine Land » Channel » Content » Following Germany’s Lead Spain Passes Misguided “Google Tax” Anti-Piracy Law

Following Germany’s Lead Spain Passes Misguided “Google Tax” Anti-Piracy Law

Given the saga of Germany’s ill-conceived and poorly implemented “ancillary copyright law” one would have thought that another European government wouldn’t immediately duplicate the mistake. But that’s exactly what’s happened in Spain. Spanish newspaper publishers, hoping to turn Google into a source of compulsory licensing revenue, worked to pass a new law that imposes strict fines for the […]

Greg Sterling on October 31, 2014 at 2:05 pm

google-news-g-ss-1920
Given the saga of Germany’s ill-conceived and poorly implemented “ancillary copyright law” one would have thought that another European government wouldn’t immediately duplicate the mistake. But that’s exactly what’s happened in Spain.

Spanish newspaper publishers, hoping to turn Google into a source of compulsory licensing revenue, worked to pass a new law that imposes strict fines for the uncompensated appearance of snippets in search results. Under the ostensible notion of protecting copyright owners against online piracy, the law was concocted by Spanish newspaper group AEDE.

The anti-piracy elements of the law are not well crafted apparently. According to an article in the Hollywood Reporter, what constitutes piracy under the law, which goes into effect on January 1, 2015, is “vague” and “weak.” Other critics argue the law is a “missed opportunity” to truly combat online piracy. 

This muddle probably resulted from the effort to combine genuine anti-piracy legislation with a “Google tax” using the same rationale for both. Because the Spanish and German cases are almost identical what happened in Germany is instructive and probably predictive for Spain.

In Germany a publisher consortium called VG Media aggressively lobbied the German Parliament to pass the ancillary copyright law. The not-so-veiled ambition was to compel Google (and other news aggregators) to pay copyright fees to the publishers. The hope was to start collecting fees from Google and others upon the passage of the legislation. 

The move totally backfired for VG Media. Google decided to remove publishers’ snippets and limit their content to headlines in search results as a way to limit its potential liability under the German copyright law.

VG Media said that the loss of traffic from the disappearance of rich content in search results might cause some of their members “to go bankrupt.” Accordingly they requested that Google “reinstate” their snippets and thumbnails without compensation — at least for the time being. 

We can probably expect a similar sequence of events and cat and mouse game in Spain between Google and the Spanish publishers. 

Google issued a statement that expressed disappointment at the passage of the Spanish anti-piracy law but also a desire to continue to work with Spanish news publishers. The question is who wants to work more with whom? Because of the German example Google likely has the upper hand in any forthcoming negotiation.

Spanish publishers are probably hoping that courts and regulators will both force Google to include their content and compel Google to pay for it. However, they’re unlikely to have it both ways.

Spain was also the country of origin for the case that gave us the now-infamous “right to be forgotten.”


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.


New on Search Engine Land

    SEO reporting to impress: How to successfully report your SEO process, efforts and result

    9 ways to become an SEO problem-solver

    More FAQ rich results being displayed in Google Search

    Webinar: Benchmark your social media performance for a competitive edge

    Google releases May 2022 broad core update

About The Author

Greg Sterling
Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land, a member of the programming team for SMX events and the VP, Market Insights at Uberall.

Related Topics

ContentGoogleSEO

Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.

Processing...Please wait.

See terms.

ATTEND OUR EVENTS

The SMX Conference logo.

Learn actionable search marketing tactics that can help you drive more traffic, leads, and revenue.

March 8-9, 2022: Master Classes (virtual)

June 14-15, 2022: SMX Advanced (virtual)

November 15-16, 2022: SMX Next (virtual)

Learn More About Our SMX Events

The MarTech Conference logo.

Discover time-saving technologies and actionable tactics that can help you overcome crucial marketing challenges.

Start Discovering Now: Spring (virtual)

September 28-29, 2022: Fall (virtual)

Learn More About Our MarTech Events

Webinars

Benchmark Your Social Media Performance For a Competitive Edge

Take a Crawl, Walk, Run Approach to Multi-Channel ABM

Content Comes First: Transform Your Operations With DAM

See More Webinars

Intelligence Reports

Enterprise SEO Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Identity Resolution Platforms

Email Marketing Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Sales Enablement Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Digital Experience Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Call Analytics Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

See More Intelligence Reports

White Papers

The State of Influencer Pricing

How to Measure Influencer Performance

Reputation Management For Healthcare Organizations

Unlock the App Marketing Potential of QR Codes

Realising the power of virtual events for demand generation

See More Whitepapers

Receive daily search news and analysis.

Processing...Please wait.

Topics

  • SEO
  • PPC

Our Events

  • Search Marketing Expo - SMX
  • MarTech

About

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Marketing Opportunities
  • Staff

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Newsletters
  • RSS
  • Youtube

© 2022 Third Door Media, Inc. All rights reserved.