> Would Google had struck such deals without the threat of the legistlation?
They did in France. And they did it for a fairly obvious reason: indexing French news is worth something to them. If the option on the table was "index Australian news and pay, or don't index", they would pay because indexing Australian news is worth something.
The problem is there are lots of newspapers out there, all selling the same news. They all fight tooth and nail to get the top rank in every search, which presents Google with a turkey shoot. The price consequently drops to zero. That would happen regardless of whether Google is a monopoly or only had 5% of the market. It should tell you something. All this hand wringing about Google abusing it's market power is rubbish. The problem isn't Google's market power. It's the fact there are 20 different newspapers all selling the same story.
The French solved not by bashing Google. They solved it by forcing all the newspapers into a room, effectively creating a monopoly for French news. Google could no longer play one off against the other, and a price greater than 0 was agreed upon.
They did in France. And they did it for a fairly obvious reason: indexing French news is worth something to them. If the option on the table was "index Australian news and pay, or don't index", they would pay because indexing Australian news is worth something.
The problem is there are lots of newspapers out there, all selling the same news. They all fight tooth and nail to get the top rank in every search, which presents Google with a turkey shoot. The price consequently drops to zero. That would happen regardless of whether Google is a monopoly or only had 5% of the market. It should tell you something. All this hand wringing about Google abusing it's market power is rubbish. The problem isn't Google's market power. It's the fact there are 20 different newspapers all selling the same story.
The French solved not by bashing Google. They solved it by forcing all the newspapers into a room, effectively creating a monopoly for French news. Google could no longer play one off against the other, and a price greater than 0 was agreed upon.