EDITORIAL: Meta decides to try bullying tactics against Canada

 

“We’re not paying for news we steal, so there!”

Meta and Google corporations have been using news from Canadian media without compensation for years. The Canadian government has finally drawn the line in the sand passing a law making it illegal to continue this practice.

Such a law has been passed in Europe and in Australia, two other jurisdictions with the cajones to go after the digital Goliaths. Europe has won their case in court penalizing one of the giants for millions of dollars, a titular sum for those corporations. Each company is worth billions of dollars. Nevertheless, the companies will no longer be allowed to use news from Canadian media sources without compensation.

Their reaction…
So how did those corporations respond? They have declared that they would no longer permit Canadians access to their news information. They would no longer post news from Canadian sources or allow Canada to access news sources they publish. 

It’s about time!
Journalism is already in seriously bad condition, suffering mortal wounds inflicted by the Internet. Writers often find their material stolen and used by Internet companies without fair compensation or consideration for copyright infringement.

Arguably the days of old fashioned journalism are numbered. Whether they are or not, the writers, journalists, reporters who have created the original works are entitled to compensation when their work is used. Otherwise, this is outright plagiarism and theft.

Bill C-18
Bill C-18 forbids use of Canadian media based articles from being used by any digital corporation without fair compensation to the source. 

Corporate bullying against a nation
It remains to be seen how successful the Canadian government will be in regulating how these Internet companies use material created by Canadian media journalists and preventing any future such larceny of literature.

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