Right to Link vs proposed Australian “link fee” legislation

Has anyone noticed this call
https://www.accc.gov.au/focus-areas/digital-platforms/news-media-bargaining-code 
from the Australian government for comments on a plan to force Google and Facebook to pay money to news media businesses for content they display on their services?  This is a final call of a proposal whose first versions came out in July.

The web architecture issue here seems to be the right to link. The code, if it became law, would force Google search and Facebook Newsfeed [specifically]  to pay a fee to the owner of the destination content (news publisher) when the link is displayed, not even necessarily followed.

The architecture of the WWW generally involves the right to link to something with impunity -- is this proposal in direct with that right?

What do folks, and the TAG, think?

Tim

Received on Saturday, 16 January 2021 17:37:01 UTC