Facebook vs News Media Options

[Christian J]

(Arbitrarily chosen news link for posterity: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-56116738 )

Isn't there a simple solution to this? All News Sites need to do is block Facebook's indexing bots, except for on spider bait pages with only the limited content that the News Sites want to be shown on Facebook. Then as human Facebook users follow links to these bait pages they'll be automatically redirected to the News Site's real news article page.

[pandy]

But do they want to block them? Then they won't be paid a dime and isn't getting paid what it's about?

[Christian J]

But do they want to block them?

News Sites block Facebook? No, I think they want to tax Facebook for scraping their content. Facebook might refer to Fair Use, but I'm not sure if that applies when the scraping is done systematically. Haven't read the details though.

Then they won't be paid a dime and isn't getting paid what it's about?

Yes. So they don't want to block Facebook, but still want governments to collect a tax for Facebook's scraping. Three mafia organizations arguing.

[pandy]

How much of the content do they take? I don't know internationally, if there is an equivalent to our "citaträtt" (right to quote?).

[Christian J]

How much of the content do they take?

No more than the intro, I think. I think the complaint is that Facebook users are content with just that, and don't bother following the link to the real article.

I don't know internationally, if there is an equivalent to our "citaträtt" (right to quote?).

I think so, though the phrasing is murky as usual:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_dealing

[pandy]

So you were ironic when you said they should block FB?

[Christian J]

So you were ironic when you said they should block FB?

No, but it depends on what they want.

I think it would be fair if FB paid News Sites for displaying complete articles. But it would also be fair that News Sites paid FB for linking to their articles. So the question becomes how long link texts that would be an acceptable compromise for both parties? On a technical level this could be solved like I suggested.

But in practice I think both parties are just trying to exploit each other. FB wants free content. News Sites want free links, and are now apparently trying to force FB both to keep linking to them and pay for it.

[RoseCampbell]

At the same time, which is funny, their conflict also promotes them: D

This post has been edited by RoseCampbell: Feb 23 2021, 04:35 AM

[pandy]

FB? I don't understand that. Everything I read about FB just makes me detest them more. But that's me. I've always been odd.