Media mogul Rupert Murdoch could block popular search engines including Google and Bing from listing content from The Sun, The Times, The Wall Street Journal and others in a move to get readers to pay for online content.
Murdoch told Sky News Australia over the weekend: "I think we will [remove our websites from Google's search index] but that's when we start charging," accusing search engines of stealing content. "We have it already with the Wall Street Journal. We have a wall, but it's not right to the ceiling. You can get, usually, the first paragraph from any story - but if you're not a paying subscriber to WSJ.com all you get is a paragraph and a subscription form."
"The people who simply just pick up everything and run with it -- steal our stories, we say they steal our stories - they just take them. That's Google, that's Microsoft, that's Ask.com, a whole lot of people ... they shouldn't have had it free all the time, and I think we've been asleep."
"There's a doctrine called fair use, which we believe to be challenged in the courts and would bar it altogether... but we'll take that slowly."
In September, the Wall Street Journal CEO and chairman told attendees at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia XVIII Conference plans to charge iPhone and BlackBerry users would go ahead "in one to two months." Under the scheme mobile access will cost $2 a week or $1 a week if you are already a subscriber reported Reuters.
Murdoch also confirmed plans to add pay-per-view options and subscription plans to Hulu, the currently free online video service that offers hit TV shows in the US. A UK version of Hulu is also planned.
Post new comment