On 20/08/2023 03:34, Walter Dnes wrote:
I've been on Gentoo for years and years, but I've never used a VPN, so consider me an absolute newbie. Canadian big news media has successfully lobbied our government to implement a link tax. Google has decided to avoid the tax by not linking to it in Google search. This morning I tried to find some news about the Russian invasion from my desktop PC, and the results were brutal. No links from any Canadian sources (as expected) or US (CNN) or UK (BBC). Talk about draconian. I need a VPN to make me "self-identify" as being in the USA, or wherever, so that Google doesn't censor news on me.
Lets hope it goes the way of the Belgian link tax. Shortly after enacting it, the local news media etc etc found traffic (and ad revenue) went through the floor, and begged the search engines to add them back.
I don't know the deal struck, but it sounds like a private contract between the news agency(s) and the search engines "you index us, and we won't charge you a penny".
Hopefully your law doesn't outlaw those sorts of deals - or the news media might soon be begging the government to repeal the law :-)
Cheers, Wol
