Media News - Thursday, October 29, 2009

Germany looks at ways to protect online journalism

As Angela Merkel begins her second term as chancellor of Germany, her government is promoting a novel way to help embattled newspaper and magazine publishers manage the transition to a digital future. The new governing coalition, led by Ms. Merkel’s Christian Democrats and including the Free Democratic Party, has pledged to create a new kind of copyright to protect online journalism. The goal is to level the playing field with Internet companies like Google, which German publishers accuse of exploiting their content to build lucrative businesses without sharing the rewards. “The Internet cannot be a copyright-free zone,” the coalition says in a document setting out its policies. Supporters of the proposal include Hubert Burda Media, a magazine publisher, and Axel Springer, owner of the newspapers Bild and Die Welt, who say it could be employed to help build new online business models. Analysts say it might allow them to try to claim royalties for the use of their content by Google or other online “aggregators” of news, for example. But the plan is raising hackles on the Internet, where opponents say an extension of copyright law runs counter to the spirit of openness that characterizes the Web. The government, they say, has succumbed to lobbying by big publishing interests that are fighting a rear-guard action against technological changes. State intervention in the media is a sensitive topic in Germany because of memories of the Nazis’ control of the press during the Third Reich. Direct financial subsidies, which keep some newspapers alive in France and other European countries, would be out of the question, German publishers say. (New York Times)

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