IT people are intensely myopic
To focus on things like “oh but links should be free on the web”
When that’s not the point, monopolies are the point and the monopoly they exert over the advertising landscape.
It takes a special kind of myopia to be bothered by the former and not the latter.
@clacke I'd prefer a solution that breaks up monopolies, but Australia cannot do that unilaterally, so what they've done is write a law that applies only to monopolies, and forces them to
- disclose algorithm changes that result in a significant impact on news publishing orgs
- negotiate a compensation scheme that takes into account the value that the platform provides vs the value that news gathering provides.
It's not about the link. It's about how we consume and pay for news.