French newspapers want Google to pay to link to them

THE sharpest minds that make up 'leading French newspaper publishers' are putting pressure on the government to pass legislation that forces search engines to pay a fee for linking to them.

They claim that search engines such as Google are wrecking their business by sending readers to them, we have been here before as both Belgian and German newspaper publishers have made attempts to charge for search engines linking to them.

Really though the French publishers want to have their cake and eat it too, because they know they can cut their links from Google by adding a short piece of code to their websites.

But they know that they don't offer enough of a unique proposition to do this and draw readers to their websites without the clicks they get from Google.

They also seem to be completely unaware of the way that online publishing now works, because the tools of production are in the hands of the many and so there is no need to own a printing press to attract a readership.

Instead they moan and complain to government to try and gain subsidy and support, in an attempt to choke off competition and ultimately ignore the wishes of readers.

Which is the thing that got them in to this position in the first place.