Astérix against Google

Does a cab driver who takes his customer to a restaurant have to pay the landlord? Indeed, the idea is grotesque. And for Google, it is a slightly hypocritical symbol of the claim that the search engine should participate in financing the content it links to. In this logic, Google is the free cab. According to its own self-image, the US company would have every reason to charge newspapers for the billions of clicks - just like other companies to which it brings customers.

After Germany, where the Bundestag is negotiating an "ancillary copyright", publishers in France want Google to participate in the financing of content. Conflicts have arisen regularly in recent years. Hoteliers, libraries and book publishers have filed lawsuits. A fine of 100,000 euros was imposed in Paris because of Street View. Sarkozy had already planned a "Google tax". By building a company headquarters in Paris for 100 million euros, Google was able to appease the public again and again: More than ninety percent of all search queries are made via Google.

But now a rhetorical war is raging. Google triggered it in mid-October with a boycott threat: if parliament decided to allow the company to participate in the financing of newspapers, it would no longer link to them. "Google is dropping its masks," raged Laurent Joffrin, editor of the left-wing news magazine Le Nouvel Observateur: "In ten years, Google has increased its turnover by one billion euros. That of the companies that produce the content has fallen by the same amount. The American multinational shows that it is in no way concerned with the right to information. It has developed a system for declaring revenue that avoids any taxation of profits in France."

Politicians also spoke of the "blackmail of a democratically elected government". Last week, Google CEO Eric Schmidt was received at the Elysée: President Hollande set a deadline of three months in which an agreement had to be reached. The Canard enchaîné reported that the company had been sent a tax bill for one billion euros.

Under the left-wing government, the conflict is also being waged as a cultural war against America. As an ideological crusade, as it once was under Jack Lang against "coca colonization". "Google is in our heads", lamented the conservative Figaro. France is rehearsing its resistance - and sees allies in many places. In Brazil, newspapers are refraining from being linked. In Belgium, where Google lost the case against the publishers, the boycott of their newspapers was called off after three days. The Nouvel Observateur describes how individuals can do without Google - it is difficult, but feasible.

Google's bill is still paying off. However, the claim to make black and free riders on the Internet pay is not unjustified. The price that customers in the Google cab pay for the free ride is high: it is their personal data that is collected and marketed. To companies to which the search engine supplies customers who are willing to pay. Only in the press restaurant to which Google directs them do they behave like parasitic diners to whom Google, as a more or less legal fence, serves selected crumbs, snacks and individual courses on a tray. The bill for the food and the preparation is paid by the host and the other guests.