Behold “The Amazon Effect”∞
Last time on “Rupert Murdoch Is A Greedy Motherfucker,” our titular antagonist was trying to get Microsoft to pay him to remove his News Corp sites from Google’s search index. Now he’s trying to get his e-books for the Kindle listed at more than Amazon’s price of $10.
So he sees that Amazon caved to Macmillan when they tried to get Amazon to sell their books for more than $14.99, and he wants to get in on it. Why? He doesn’t have to worry about (or pay for) manufacturing or distributing the books, and he gets 70% of the revenue on each book sold—which is pretty much 100% profit, for anyone doing the math.
I’m going to put this on the record: Rupert Murdoch is the antithesis of the progressive digital movement. His sole aim seems to be to hinder advances in technology and culture in order to preserve the dying old models of business that no longer apply in the Internet age.
Microsoft Dealing With The Devil Himself!∞
Okay, I lied. It’s only Rupert Murdoch. But it’s still kind of accurate, right?
In short, Microsoft is in discussions to pay News Corp to remove their sites from Google’s index. Rupert Murdoch has been complaining for a while that Google has been stealing his content by indexing his sites, so it’s nice that he might finally put his money where his mouth is.
My prediction? If this deal goes through, the News Corp sites will leave Google’s index, most people won’t notice or care, and Microsoft and News Corp will both lose out.
(via Slashdot)
Rupert Murdoch May Block Google Searches∞
Or, alternate title: Rupert Murdoch Is A Whiny Bitch!
It would be nice if he came out and said what he actually MEANS, which is that he wants to still be indexed by Google with the added bonus of them sharing their ad revenue with him when a search links to his page. Instead he’s hiding behind this ridiculous argument that Google searches are stealing from him somehow. Furthermore, he somehow has it in his brain that he has to get rid of the fair use doctrine. Here’s what he had to say about it:
There’s a doctrine called ‘fair use,’ which we believe to be challenged in the courts and would bar it altogether
Poor grammar notwithstanding, THAT’S his solution to Google using headlines and blurbs from his articles for their search results? Going after fair use? Whoops. I guess I shouldn’t have used that quote… which is exactly what his news sites wouldn’t be able to do if fair use were gone. YOU CAN’T HAVE IT BOTH WAYS, BUDDY.
Of course, that argument (if they’re stupid enough to even bring it) will get shot down in court way before it ever gains the slightest amount of traction. And to your general whininess about Google stealing from you, Mr. Murdoch, I say:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /
That should block Google and all those other pesky search engines from indexing your content. If you truly don’t think you need those millions of incoming links—if you TRULY think that will help you offset your advertising losses with subscribers—you can use that to replace your current robots.txt file, which (ironically enough) specifically optimizes your site for Google.
Whoa. The guy in charge of Fox News being hypocritical? No way!
