Mark’s Soap Box

Belgium court tells Google to stop breaking the law.

OK, I am no fan of Google. They are lefty censorship loving (when they do it), and not at all “good”. So I am happy that they are getting back what they dish out. However, this points out a serious problem on the net; what if you are not in that country, and what if you don’t know the law?

A good example of this is the current gambling issues in America. Passing laws that affect your own country are one thing, but what about laws that affect other countries?

In this case, it’s obvious Google is wrong. Or is it? The newspaper site was openly available on the web. It is commonly accepted that search engines will index sites. On the other hand does that mean that Google can make money off of it without paying the people who created the content?

As a content creator I have objected to this for years, predating even the Google attempt to be the worlds library without paying royalties. Sadly Google’s attitude is the same as many netizens. The idea that information is free has permeated their thinking to the point of fanaticism.

If all content is free, then who will create anything of value? No one, that is who. Take a look at the “free” web and you will see much of what is out there is garbage. Some do put up quality stuff, but they are not doing it for free.

If we don’t work these things out soon, we could be in for a really bad time down the road. Well we already are there.

Tags: Big Brother, blog, censorship, free speech, Google