德國擬讓報刊向谷歌等網絡公司收費大綱

In a move aimed at helping Newspapers generate new revenue from struggling online operations, the German government intends to require search engines and other Internet companies to pay publishers whose content they highlight.

The German governing coalition, led by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, said last week that it planned to introduce legislation to create a new kind of copyright for online publishers. Under the proposal, Internet aggregators and search engines would have to pay the publishers if they wanted to display all or parts of their articles — even small snippets like those that are shown in search links.

The proposal was cheered by German publishers, who complain that Internet companies like Google have profited hugely from their content, while generating only scraps of digital revenue.

“In the digital age, such a right is essential to protect the joint efforts of journalists and publishers,” the Federation of German Newspaper Publishers said, adding that it was “an essential measure for the maintenance of an independent, privately financed news media.”

But the announcement set off howls of protest from Internet companies and bloggers, who said the proposal could threaten free speech and stunt the development of the digital economy in Germany.

The proposal, in an announcement of the coalition’s legislative agenda, follows intense lobbying by publishers, after the idea was initially put forward several years ago.

The plan authorizes ministers to draft a bill, which is expected to go to the Bundestag, the lower house of Parliament, this summer.

The proposal addresses a debate that has raged since the early days of the Internet: Who benefits more from digital links and the traffic they generate — search engines, aggregators and other online hubs, or the sites that produce the content?

Google does not sell advertising on its German news aggregation service, which displays snippets of articles and links to the originating sites. But the company earns billions of euros from advertising on its search engine and other services.

Most German newspaper publishers, on the other hand, generate only minuscule revenue online from advertising or other sources, like so-called pay walls around their content.爲了幫助萎靡不振的網上報紙業務獲得新收入來源，德國政府擬要求搜索引擎和其他互聯網公司，在頁面突出顯示這些報紙的內容時付費給報社。

以德國總理默克爾爲首的基督教民主聯盟領導的聯合政府上週表示，計劃立法爲互聯網出版商制定新的版權條例。按照這項計劃，網絡新聞聚合器和搜索引擎如要登載報紙的全篇或者部分內容，甚至是那些出現在搜索鏈接中的詞條，都須付費給對方。

這一計劃使德國出版商備受鼓舞，他們抱怨谷歌等互聯網公司從登載他們的內容中獲取了鉅額利潤，而產生的數字業務費用只不過是九牛一毛。

德國報紙出版商聯盟說：“在數字時代，制定這類版權是對記者和出版商共同成果的保護”，該聯盟還補充說，這是“維持獨立的私營新聞媒體的必要舉措”。

但是這一宣佈引起了互聯網公司和博客使用者的抗議，他們認爲這一計劃將會危及言論自由，並且阻礙德國數字經濟的發展。

聯盟的立法議程裏宣佈了這一計劃。該計劃一宣佈出版商們便積極進行遊說，事實上這一想法早在幾年前就已經提出。

這個計劃授權部長們草擬法案，預計今天夏天將提交給德國聯邦議院，即下議院，進行表決。

這一計劃引發了自互聯網產生不久便風行的一場爭論：誰是數據鏈接和由此產生的網絡流量的更大贏家？搜索引擎，聚合器，其他的網絡信息樞紐，還是產生源信息的網頁？

谷歌在德國的新聞聚合服務可顯示原創網站的文章片段和鏈接，不過谷歌並沒有用這種服務賣廣告。但是，谷歌通過自身的搜索引擎和其他服務的廣告賺取了數十億歐元的利潤。

而另一方面，大多數德國報紙出版商只能通過廣告或付費閱讀等其他渠道獲取極少的網絡收入。