A day after the editor of The Wall Street Journal referred to online news aggregators--particularly Google and its Google News product--as "parasites or tech tapeworms," and the chairman of the Associated Press announced an initiative to protect print media content from infringing use online, Google has fired back in a blog.
The gist of Tuesday's blog post, penned by Google associate general counsel Alexander Macgillivray: don't point fingers at us.
"We show snippets and links under the doctrine of fair use enshrined in the United States Copyright Act," he wrote. "Even though the Copyright Act does not grant a copyright owner a veto over such uses, it is our policy to allow any rightsholder, in this case newspaper or wire service, to remove their content from our index--all they have to do is ask us or implement simple technical standards."
As for the AP, Macgillivray noted that Google already pays the wire service to reprint its articles and photographs. A dispute several years ago led to this agreement.
Of course, Google News is far from the only aggregator out there. Digg, Drudge Report, and the Huffington Post are also big players. But Google is unquestionably at the top.
For the past few years, as many mainstream media outlets (particularly on the print side) began to lose revenue, influence, and readership, some of them had a pretty clear message: blame Google. At the same time, Viacom still has a billion-dollar lawsuit against Google's YouTube over pirated video content. And much of the publishing industry is far from signing on to Google's book digitization initiative.
With struggling newspapers in a panic over whether offering content online for free might not have been such a good idea in the first place, Google--the ultimate source of free content--is an even easier target.
But Google says it's part of the solution, not the problem, and insists that its search and aggregation products only serve to help drive traffic to online news sites.
"Users like me are sent from different Google sites to newspaper websites at a rate of more than a billion clicks per month," Macgillivray said in his post. "These clicks go to news publishers large and small, domestic and international--day and night."
(Credit:
Caroline McCarthy/CNET News.com)
NEW YORK--Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was the fourth and final presidential candidate to appear at the youth-focused "Closing Arguments" question-and-answer session, co-hosted by MySpace, MTV, and the Associated Press. And as with her predecessors--Republican candidates Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul and Democrat Barack Obama--Clinton, a senator from New York, was not asked to touch upon technology policy.
Net neutrality, piracy, and online privacy were barely mentioned (UPDATE: Ron Paul did briefly allude to his opposition to restrictions on Net use and online government snooping), and environmental and energy issues were only addressed peripherally as the vast majority of talk focused on the war in Iraq and the economy. But at the same time, the event itself was as Web 2.0 as they get.
Questions came from not only the studio audience, but also through MySpace and MTV News' Web sites. Candidates' responses were polled live through a widget on MySpace, using technology from Flektor, a start-up that MySpace parent company Fox Interactive Media acquired last year. And the event was live-streamed all over MySpace, MTV, and Associated Press Web properties.
So, commenters, I'll let you talk this one over: are young voters unaware of technology issues that will undoubtedly be shaped by whoever wins the presidency later this year? Or, with economic and national security issues at the forefront, does technology legitimately take a back burner?
Have at it.
(Credit:
Caroline McCarthy/CNET News.com)
NEW YORK--Right before Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama addressed the MySpace-MTV "Closing Arguments" event via videoconference from Minneapolis, one of the young studio audience members whispered, "He's the whole reason why we're here."
And those of us inside the studio could hear enthusiastic cheers from outside in Times Square, where dozens of Obama supporters had gathered before the event.
Obama might not have the online cult following that Republican candidate Ron Paul does, but he has arguably amassed the most significant online following out of all the Democratic candidates; he was MySpace users' favorite candidate from the party, and let's not forget the "Obama Girl" online video sensation. (Okay, so that was unofficial.)
But as with Paul's "dialogue" earlier in the evening, technology policy was wholly absent from the conversation. Maybe it just isn't high-profile enough for the crowds tuning in via MySpace and MTV; Obama has become famous for a broad-based message of sweeping change. Geek policy might just seem too narrow in focus.
"The future is about more than just gender or race," Obama said when asked about the fact that the two Democratic front-runners are a woman and an African American, and then quipped, "If it were about race, I wouldn't have to...(campaign). I could just show up." The young audience, receptive to a bit of humor in an otherwise serious event (minus the red-and-blue lightning bolts on the walls) cheered and applauded.
(Credit:
Caroline McCarthy/CNET News.com)
NEW YORK--Texas Rep. Ron Paul was the second of four presidential candidates answering questions at the MTV-MySpace "Closing Arguments" event on Saturday evening, and there was probably a whole lot of people tuning in online to the live-streamed event.
Paul and his libertarian leanings have proven hugely popular on the Web; the long-shot Republican candidate actually won MySpace's mock Republican primary. Unfortunately for tech enthusiasts, technology policy wasn't brought up at all; subjects like Net neutrality and online copyright law didn't seem to be hot-button issues among the Gen-Y crowds in the audience.
One question from a Fordham University student asked Paul why he thought young voters were turning out in droves for the Democratic rather than Republican party, and Paul suggested that it's because the other Republican candidates just don't get what's important to the youth voting bloc. He raised as examples the Iraq war, which he does not support, and a shaky economy that has left many students wondering how they'll pay tuition or get a job after graduation.
A live poll conducted through MySpace revealed that 67 percent of respondents indeed thought that Paul had done an adequate job reaching out to young voters.
"Young people on campuses, they're cheering loudly," Paul said as he described the response on campuses to his controversial economic views and opposition to the war in Iraq. "Believe me, they respond very favorably."
But at the end of the "dialogue," Paul committed a bit of a faux-pas when he talked about why his monetary policy has caught on among many members of Generation Y. "Young people understand it because it's not complex," he said. Bad move, congressman.
Mike Huckabee, on videoconference, answers questions from the audience.
(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET News.com)NEW YORK--MTV's "Choose or Lose" pre-Super Tuesday event, co-hosted with MySpace and the Associated Press, marked my first time in a live studio audience. It sure has been a trip; there are cameras just about everywhere, and MTV packed us all in like sardines. Right above my head is a giant flashing red-and-blue lightning bolt; I've been trying to make sure I don't smack against it.
MTV News anchor Gideon Yago introduced the candidates, all of whom were dialed in via videoconference from around the country: Barack Obama from Minneapolis; Hillary Clinton from Tucson, Ariz.; Ron Paul from Victoria, Texas; and Mike Huckabee from Montgomery, Ala. The event was structured as a "dialogue," not a debate, so each candidate answers questions individually.
Huckabee was the first candidate up, and the first question he asked was about how he would handle "sweeping change" like the sort that Democratic candidate Obama, a favorite among young voters, has promised. The former Arkansas governor focused on the economy, a theme that he retained through the rest of his answers. "Real change is all about making sure that the government knows it's supposed to work for us, and not the other way around," Huckabee answered, and started talking about shaking up the tax structure. "People in the student generation have a nine trillion dollar debt on top of their heads."
In between questions, moderators brought up live polling questions that were simultaneously conducted online as well as questions submitted through MySpace instant messages and MTV News' Web site.
Huckabee did seem slightly taken aback when he was asked to answer a question coming from a MySpaceIM user named "TurnMyLipsBlue."
(Credit:
Caroline McCarthy/CNET News.com)
NEW YORK--There are red, white, and blue lights flashing everywhere and I think I might be the oldest person in the room; I'm in the Uptown Studio at MTV's Times Square headquarters for the "Closing Arguments" event co-hosted by MTV, MySpace, and the Associated Press.
Presidential candidates Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Mike Huckabee, and Ron Paul will be videoconferencing in to answer questions from the studio audience, as well as questions submitted online.
Outside, a huge crowd has amassed outside MTV Studios, primarily student groups in support of Obama, though a number of Clinton supporters were also present as well as one guy with a Paul sign. (UPDATE: A number of passionate Ron Paul apologists have let me know that there were ultimately many more people who showed up to voice their support for the Texas congressman, which video of the event has confirmed to me after the fact. There was only one when I got there, and since we were inside, we couldn't see the crowds grow outside.)
(Credit:
Caroline McCarthy/CNET News.com)
Inside the studio, MTV News' Gideon Yago, with a can of diet Red Bull in one hand, gave a pep talk on proper live TV conduct for the audience members. They're primarily local college students (the one sitting next to me is part of a pro-Obama group at NYU, and one said "I have a friend who works for MySpace"). "It's pretty much live, so what you say when you say it will be seen by lots and lots of people," Yago told them as he asked them to keep it courteous.
Also in the house are a few of the "Street Team '08" members who will be submitting live reports on Nokia N95 cell phones during the "Super Tuesday" primaries next week.
This one's kind of a bitter irony. We've all been reading over and over about how traditional news outlets are turning to the Web in order to boost readership and advertising revenue in the face of a well-documented decline in print media (Wired magazine has a feature in this month's issue about newspaper chain Gannett's attempt to modernize). But in this case, it's the other way around: The Associated Press, according to a report on Friday evening, has announced that it's axing its youth-oriented, blog- and video-heavy ASAP news portal because it proved to be a failed experiment.
The two-year-old ASAP, which was created as an alternative news hub for the generation of young professionals who typically don't turn on a TV news show unless Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert is involved, will go under on October 31. Director Kathleen Carroll said in a memo that it simply wasn't profitable enough.
A look at what's on ASAP's front page. Not nearly enough on 'the news.'
(Credit: The Associated Press)This is really too bad, in my opinion, because the AP had a great chance to show that it's possible for an established and reputable name in reporting to create a separate property geared toward the YouTube crowd. Unfortunately, it fell short in a few ways--ASAP offers up traditional AP news stories mixed with podcasts, video footage, map mashups, and blog commentary, but most of it isn't integrated as seamlessly as it could be. There's no central video player, for example.
Also, you have to do some clicking to find what you want to. Top billing is currently given to a feature on The Simpsons, a story and accompanying video about "office casual" fashion, and a link to ASAP's main news blog. Headlines, meanwhile, are kept in small print under verticals like News, Entertainment, and Sports; there's a ticker of AP stories at the top. It just isn't an adequate presentation of what's important--stratifying headlines by freshness and relevance is something that I think the Huffington Post does very well, for example.
The unappealing structure might've been behind ASAP's demise, or perhaps it was a matter of publicity: I'd never even heard of the project until I was at a party thrown by some New York-area media entrepreneurs and there happened to be an ASAP videoblogger walking around.
There's some cool content on ASAP, so enjoy it while it lasts--and stay tuned for more developments in the ongoing evolution of "next-generation news."
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