Spain passed what they called a "Google tax" law a while back. It basically said....if Google clipped a piece of an article from a Spanish news source....even just three lines like they typically do for Google news.....they had to pay that newspaper or source money. The belief was that this mere lead and three simple lines were intellectural property held by the news source in Spain.
After a good deal of arguing.....Google gave up. So, about a week from now....rather than pay and start a new trend....Google is shutting down all references to Spanish news. When you browse and look for news items from Spain....there will be nothing there.
The Spaniards are quietly sitting there and thinking.....well, they expected Google to act in a certain way.....and they went the opposite way. What happens now?
The servers in Spain that support the newspapers will start to notice a LOT less traffic. My humble guess is that ninety percent less over the first week, and then they recover some viewers by the end of January who find the sites and simply 'hot-page' the news source to their browser.
A permanent fix? I have my doubts. I suspect by the end of 2015.....some talks will occur and this law might be thrown out. For the rest of Europe, there's some countries viewing the affair and the results. It's safe to say there's a large segment of privacy-enthusiasts who are anti-Google. Anything that Google touches.....from maps to personal data, onto advertising...worries these people. They actually sit around and worry about Google imagery and their backyard being shown on a world display.
In the 1600's, the Age of Enlightenment occurred. Information was brought out of the darkness and put in full display of the public. We are still in this period of Enlightenment.....fighting over information and data. And the truth is.....we may never exit the Enlightenment era.
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