Robert Murdoch – Beat The Money Out Of Consumers!

Robert Murdoch has assigned his minions at News Corp. the task of coming up with a way to charge consumers for his news. The free market place which makes up the Internet is not a business model that he and his group can figure out. They tried making the news stuff free but failed. Failed to make money that is. So the Internet needs to be changed to fit Murdoch and his people.

But we consumers have a secret of our own. A secret that anyone who is net savvy knows. The Internet is not just comprised of U.S. newspapers and U.S. interests. Asian countries do not comply with even the smallest consideration for copyright protections. Ask Microsoft how their piracy fight against China has been. The rumors still flow from those in the know that Windows can be bought in Beijing for $2.

According to one news article that was posted on the Internet for free, it states that:

As anybody who used to read a newspaper that no longer exists knows, the race by Murdoch, Brill, and others to “save journalism” has taken on an added urgency in recent months. The latest case, but certainly not the last, is the venerable, New York Times-owned Boston Globe, which has been threatened with closure unless it can work out a deal with a union representing more than 600 Globe employees.

The extent of News Corp.’s plans is a well-kept secret, but their existence does not come as a complete surprise. Murdoch vaguely alluded to them last month at an industry show. His favorite in-house editor, Robert Thompson, formerly editor of The Times of London and now managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, has been scathing in his attacks on Internet companies like Google as “parasites or tech tapeworms in the intestines of the Internet.” As he told an interviewer in April, “There is a collective consciousness among content creators that they are bearing the costs and that others are reaping some of the revenue. Inevitably that profound contradiction will be a catalyst for action, and the moment is nigh.”

Google has countered with the following during a Senate hearing :

“Google News and Google search provide a valuable free service to online newspapers specifically by sending interested readers to their sites at a rate of more than 1 billion clicks per month. Newspapers use that Web traffic to increase their readership and generate additional revenue,” she said, according to her prepared testimony.

It’s good to see that the government is getting involved. Maybe us taxpayers can bailout the newspapers next! We could close down the Internet and go back to the way it was when everyone had a soggy newspaper sitting on their wet lawns on Sunday morning.

What do you think?

Comments welcome.

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