Leo Goldstein (@defyccc)

Google Robs the Web #Google acts as a distributor (or the distributor) of almost all literary works on the web. It operates like brick-and-mortar bookstores did before the Internet. Customers visited bookstores, listened to the staff’s recommendations, were guided to the shelves where those books were located, and could look inside the books' contents before buying. This is precisely what Google does now. Google makes it known that it carries substantially all literary works on the web. To access the content of interest, Google site visitors enter keywords, and Google provides links to articles and snippets from them, allowing visitors to look inside. The main difference is that bookstores buy books from publishers, while Google copies copyrighted content without permission or compensation to the publisher or author. Google makes money by showing its visitors ads, which are placed before the works for which the visitor searches. Additionally, Google shows its content (e.g., YouTube). The original content owner loses customers when visitors choose one of Google’s prominent ads or links. Google has been a powerful electoral ally of the Democratic Party since 2006 and became entangled with the Obama administration immediately when it came to power. Google aided the Democrats, and the Democrats aided Google. One might say there was also an ideological alignment between them. #Obamanet (net neutrality) was imposed by a collaboration of Google and the neo-Marxist group Free Press. So, the Obama administration ignored that Google was stealing literary works, including news, from all over the web. In 2013, the FTC closed its anti-trust investigation into Google, effectively accepting and endorsing Google’s massive copyright infringement. Consequences: Defunding of News and Other Literary Works No publisher or distributor can survive when a massive competitor takes their content without paying for it and then distributes it. The influence of Google’s theft is most apparent in the newspapers' ad revenues, which fell from $49 billion in 2005 to $22 billion in 2014 (1, 2). During this same time, Google’s domestic ads revenues increased from $4 billion to $28 billion. In other words, 90% of ads revenue lost by newspapers went to Google. Rupert Murdoch was one of the few to decry the situation and attempt to do something about it in 2009. Of course, he did not succeed under the Obama-Biden administration. https://libsowner.substack.com/p/google-robs-the-web