Google threatens French media ban over proposed lawhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19996351
Google
has threatened to exclude French media sites from search results if
France goes ahead with plans to make search engines pay for content.
In a letter sent to several ministerial offices, Google said such a law "would threaten its very existence".


French newspaper publishers have been pushing for the law,
saying it is unfair that Google receives advertising revenue from
searches for news.
French Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti also favours the idea.


She told a parliamentary commission it was "a tool that it seems important to me to develop".


Ad tax
Google France had said earlier that the plan "would be harmful
to the internet, internet users and news websites that benefit from
substantial traffic" that comes via Google's search engine.
It said it redirected four billion clicks to French media pages each month.


Print newspapers have seen their incomes gradually eroded in recent years as consumers and advertisers turn to the web.


Previously the French government has considered introducing a
tax on online advertising revenues but it later dropped the plan,
worried it would hurt small local companies more than global internet
giants.
"France has a track record of enacting laws to protect its
local media interest that seem out of step with the conventional wisdom
in other markets," said Adrian Drury, an analyst with research firm
Ovum.
"The question is whether by returning a search result Google
is infringing the copyright of a site. The publishers will continue to
contest this, but the general consensus is that it is not," he added.