Podcasting “Big Tech Isn’t Stealing News Publishers’ Content”

“…It’s stealing their money.”

This week on my podcast, I read my Medium column, “Big Tech Isn’t Stealing News Publishers’ Content,” on how the news industry’s focus on charging tech firms to link to them is totally misguided, and misses the real issue: the rigging of the ad market.

https://doctorow.medium.com/big-tech-isnt-stealing-news-publishers-content-a97306884a6b

Countries all over the world — France, Australia, Brazil and now Canada (Bill C-11)- have fallen in love with the idea that the answer to the news media’s woes is to create a new licensable copyright over “snippets” of news that users post to social media.

Every country’s copyright system has a suite of “limitations and exceptions” (like fair use and fair dealing) that ensure that copyright is compatible with free expression. The right to quote the news historically fell squarely in this category: after all, it’s only the news if we’re talking about it (otherwise it’s a secret).

For decades, our public squares have been moving online. The pandemic accelerated and cemented this process. Today, when we talk about the news, we probably do so on an online platform, and, thanks to monopolization, the number of platforms where this takes place is vanishingly…