Why Yes, legislators in other countries (especially the EU) are idiots too

Updated:  German publishers lost similar cases in 2014 and again in 2015 and are trying again. Basically VG media wants the German government to both require payments from Google for all traffic they send, and to send the traffic too.  Good luck with that!

Like Spain, where in Dec 2014 they passed a law requiring all search engines to pay newspapers for snippets and links, whether the newspapers wanted them to or not.    Google on December 11 2014 responded with:

"it’s with real sadness that on 16 December (before the new law comes into effect in January) we’ll remove Spanish publishers from Google News, and close Google News in Spain."

Techdirt called it the "Nuclear Option", although the rest of us can call it "Duh".  What were they thinking?

Update after reading (more of)  the Forbes article: Well.  My mistake. 6 months later, Google News ES is still closed.  Huh.  I guess they don't have a problem with that.

Forbes writes on Dec 15th: "That Was Fast; Spain Already In Full Retreat Over Google Tax"

Hopefully the message wasn't lost on Germany, pushing for the same thing again in July 2015

Oh well, here goes Spain again, going full police state on everyone,  banning demonstrations and taking pictures of police.

That's almost as stupid as banning outdoor photography. More at I'm a Photographer not a Terrorist

Perry

PS. Oh and patch your systems too