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German Government Asks Users to Boycott Google

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Google and Germany's government are clashing because of a proposed law that would prevent Google from publishing more than just a headline link to journalistic content.

The currently discussed law suggests changes to Germany's copyright law that would enable large publishers to charge Google for the common first sentence or paragraph of an article that appears in search results.

Google Germany has reacted with a video ("Defend your Net") that encourages users to voice their opinion against the proposed law as it would threaten a user's ability to find content. The video ends with the statement

For more than 10 years you can find everything that moves you. A proposed law is designed to change that. Do you want that? Get involved.

Germany's government, however, believes that Google isn't playing fair and basically asked people in Germany to boycott Google. In a tweet, Secretary of Justice, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger wrote that "there are other search engines than Google". The BDZV und VDZ, which represent Germany's print and online publishers as industry organizations, accused Google to use "perfid methods" to create fear among consumers and described Google's video as "slander".

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23 Comments Comment from the forums
  • blazorthon 29 November 2012 16:25
    I'd describe what the German government said about Google to be slander and a lie about what Google said, but that's me. Google disagreeing with them over a law being made to screw with Google should be a given. If anything ,they probably could have resolved any issue by talking with Google about this privately until they had a greater need to go public. It's not fair to users nor Google to just throw something like that out there IMO. I'd say the same about Microsoft if they did this to Bing, especially since both are not trying to falsify search results AFAIK.
    Reply
  • john15v16 29 November 2012 16:25
    OK..sooooo since Google has most of the search market world wide Mrs. Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger thinks that it's hurting German publishers to have their work easily accessible across the planet...I'm just not getting the logic behind this. I mean, Google isn't giving away entire books or chapters or even paragraphs for that matter...What folks would do for a Deutsche Mark...
    Reply
  • cats_Paw 29 November 2012 16:34
    I hardly belive ive ever seen google do something i disagree with. I mean, most companies fak you in the ass ( excuse my language ) every single day, while google most of the time just gives you a poke in the arm.

    Its hard to really be on the side of govermnets that "allowed" the world to become such a mess.
    Reply
  • alidan 29 November 2012 16:45
    john15v16OK..sooooo since Google has most of the search market world wide Mrs. Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger thinks that it's hurting German publishers to have their work easily accessible across the planet...I'm just not getting the logic behind this. I mean, Google isn't giving away entire books or chapters or even paragraphs for that matter...What folks would do for a Deutsche Mark...
    how much of a news article do you need to read to get the big picture? they think that the first like to paragraph is enough, and because of that think people wont click the link to their site.

    i get it, but i think its VERY stupid.

    Cats_PawI hardly belive ive ever seen google do something i disagree with. I mean, most companies (sanction avoidance removed word) you in the (sanction avoidance removed word) ( excuse my language ) every single day, while google most of the time just gives you a poke in the arm.Its hard to really be on the side of govermnets that "allowed" the world to become such a mess.
    there are legitimate complaints about google... but most of the major ones are so stupid...
    oh no, a robot saw a word in my email, and gave me an ad that goes along with that word, how dare they.
    but fact is, all those emails are already going through them

    oh no, they track my web habits, OH NO
    and i say so what? again its all about the ads, and making more money off targeted ads its not invasive, and its hardly wrong. tell me this is a major issue once dumpster diving a hospital/doctors office for social security numbers is no longer a thing.
    Reply
  • fuzzion 29 November 2012 16:50
    And I thought only Apple were pigs.
    Reply
  • in_the_loop 29 November 2012 17:11
    Google should just boycott Germany (and France that also have a similar proposal), then the government would see how their voters would react.
    No need for google to waste their time on idiotic countries where they give companies the ability to reach more people (via search hits) and then have to pay for it, despite that!
    If anything it should have been the other way around(if google wasn't ad-supported)!
    Reply
  • acerace 29 November 2012 17:15
    9432087 said:
    Google should just boycott Germany (and France that also have a similar proposal), then the government would see how their voters would react.
    No need for google to waste their time on idiotic countries where they give companies the ability to reach more people (via search hits) and then have to pay for it, despite that!
    If anything it should have been the other way around(if google wasn't ad-supported)!

    Yeah, 'Murica.
    Reply
  • 29 November 2012 17:16
    Don't they have enough of a crisis to bother with other than do such ridiculous stupidities over "search engines?"
    Reply
  • Firehead2k 29 November 2012 17:17
    How about Tomshardware stops misinterpreting news by giving it grandiose titles.

    - The minister in question isn't " German Government"
    - A newspaper (who is affected by the proposed legislation) ran with that tweet to generate a headline "Minister indirectly calls for Google boycott"
    - The tweet itself is subject to interpretation, and from the context I would interpret it as "not only google is affected by this law, other search engines are aswell", since it contains a link to a short governmental FAQ that adresses some of those issues.
    Reply
  • kensingtron 29 November 2012 17:29
    Like German humour, this is no laughing matter.
    Reply