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The problem is what is trying to be sold, not the medium it is distributed in. News can't be copyrighted and is willingly distributed for free. Most news is ac
by Touche 11y ago
The problem is what is trying to be sold, not the medium it is distributed in. News can't be copyrighted and is willingly distributed for free. Most news is actually cheap to produce as well.
So the problem is that a previously lucrative business (news) is no longer lucrative at all, and in fact that are many people who will give it away for free just for fun.
Unfortunately for those in the business of news I don't think there's a "fix" for this, it's just the onward march of progress.
- jbob2000 11y agoThis is the real issue. It used to be hard to come by news. It is really easy to share and read news now. During protests and riots, the best news comes from the people on the ground with smartphones. Not a news crew with cameras and lights. My coworker texted me the other evening that the train was out of service. I didn't hear about it on Twitter or on CTV. And I read a blog post about Dieselgate before I saw the headlines on CNN.
- pjc50 11y agoNews article text absolutely can be copyrighted. It's just the parts that are pure reported speech or excerpts from someone else's press release that can't. News is also fairly worthless without comment, analysis and context.
- Touche 11y agoThose are not monetarily valuable things though; plenty of people will write about the news for free. Investigative reporting is the exception in that it's difficult and can be expensive to produce.