Germany wants to charge Google for use of news

The German government approved a controversial bill that would require Internet search engine companies such as Google to pay fees to the German media for displaying news headlines on their websites. Google’s German office condemned the decision as a ‘black day’ and said it hoped the bill would be rejected by the Bundestag (German Parliament). Until now, news aggregators have not been subjected to charges in Germany for their news pages that quote headlines and snippets from media sources. The bill creates a new form of copyright which would enable media outlets to license the use of headlines. Government spokesman Steffen Seibert said the bill would only apply to commercial news portals, meaning bloggers, non-profit groups, lawyers and consumers could continue to quote headlines on their own websites without paying. News portals have fought a series of skirmishes with the European media in recent years.