The whole idea the internet is interlinked sites. Then again the whole idea if the internet was also a robust, reliable, multi-nodal, non-corporate architecture for redundant transmission of data, so we’re headed into the shitter already.
But, more to the point, if you start charging people for links you break the purpose of being able to link things. It will kill Canadian journalism first, but it will wound a portion of the internet in the process. And if it spreads it will do net harm to both sides, everywhere.
If these websites were someone’s blog linking to a news article, I’d agree. They’re not and they’re not merely linking content. This isn’t the open web, it’s not the internet. These are platforms with captive audiences. Once you put that in the thought process, it flips the argument on its head.
Do you want to kill the internet? This is how you kill the internet.
This is how you isolate your journalism industry to get zero traffic
Seems like that would hurt Canadian journalism rather than kill the internet?
The whole idea the internet is interlinked sites. Then again the whole idea if the internet was also a robust, reliable, multi-nodal, non-corporate architecture for redundant transmission of data, so we’re headed into the shitter already.
But, more to the point, if you start charging people for links you break the purpose of being able to link things. It will kill Canadian journalism first, but it will wound a portion of the internet in the process. And if it spreads it will do net harm to both sides, everywhere.
Just like the original comment this seems like wild overstatement.
If these websites were someone’s blog linking to a news article, I’d agree. They’re not and they’re not merely linking content. This isn’t the open web, it’s not the internet. These are platforms with captive audiences. Once you put that in the thought process, it flips the argument on its head.
And if Facebook and Google simply refuse to link to the sites that charge the money to link to them. What will happen then?
Facebook and Google have already destroyed the internet, by making hundreds of millions of people think they are the internet.