Sydney — Australia’s small publisher steps into the fight to secure a license agreement between Google and Facebook after the country’s wealthiest person says his charity seeks collective bargaining arrangements. Probably.
The Minderoo Foundation, owned by Andrew Forrest, chairman of the iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group, will apply to the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) on behalf of 18 small publishers so they can negotiate together without violating competition law. I plan to do it.
Forrest’s additional influence and different approaches to small publishers by Google and Facebook could build momentum for the Australian government to intervene and set prices.
Since March, Australia has broken new ground with a law that requires two tech giants to negotiate with Australian retailers about content that drives website traffic and advertising.
However, while most major news providers have secured deals, many smaller publishers have been calmly left behind, especially criticizing Facebook’s reluctance to answer the phone.
For other publications that have secured transactions with Google but not with Facebook, we will publish public relations commentary by the television station SBS, which is the main source of foreign language news, and scholars. Conversations are included.
ACCC Chair Rod Sims has also expressed concern several times about whether Facebook is approaching the law in the right spirit.
The law allows the Australian government to set a fee if negotiations between the tech giant and the news provider fail, but now rejected companies will consider the law as planned by the government in March next year. It’s almost unreliable because it waits for you to do it.
In a statement, Emma McDonald, director of Frontier Technology, an initiative of the Minderoo Foundation, attracted multicultural viewers to the 18 small publishers supported and focused on regional or regional issues. Contains online publications.
“We’re still in talks with publishers of all sizes,” Google reiterated. “We’ve been supporting small independent publishers for a long time,” Facebook said.
The Foundation move will take place at the end of last month after the ACCC allowed organizations representing 261 radio stations to negotiate content deals.
Byron Kay and Renju Jose
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