The titanic struggle between Big Tech and Australia’s government over paying for news content this week produced two strikingly different outcomes. Facebook blocked sharing of news in the country, leaving users without access to news sites — plus some government health and emergency services sites — via its services. Google chose instead to agree licensing deals with Australian companies, and a global accord with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. Far from providing a model of how to rebalance the economics of online news, the Australian case highlights the potential pitfalls when using legislation to tackle the matter.
本周，大型科技公司與澳大利亞政府之間圍繞為新聞內容付費進行的激烈斗爭產生了兩種截然不同的結果。Facebook在澳大利亞屏蔽了新聞分享，致使用戶無法通過其服務訪問新聞頁面——以及一些政府衛生和緊急服務部門的頁面。谷歌(Google)則選擇與澳大利亞出版商達成授權協議，而且與魯珀特?默多克(Rupert Murdoch)旗下的新聞集團(News Corp)達成一項全球協議。這起紛爭非但沒有提供一種重新平衡在線新聞盈利的模式，反而突顯出利用立法手段解決這一問題時可能遭遇的陷阱。