Facebook isn't violating copyrights when people share an article, nor is Google committing infringement when it indexes a website (excluding books and image sea

Facebook isn't violating copyrights when people share an article, nor is Google committing infringement when it indexes a website (excluding books and image search). All they do is provide a link. Telling someone where they can find an article is not the same as republishing articles without permission. If media companies wanted to, they could raise a paywall and keep us from viewing their work without paying. And for sure, some piracy would occur. But there's no evidence this is happening on a massive scale. It's not as if people flock to the pirate bay to torrent articles from the wall street journal. So why don't more sites have paywalls? Because it means less readers and less sharing. When you're in the business of selling ads, that means less money. But when you're in the business of licensing content, all that matters is what paying readers contribute. That should tell you how media companies see themselves.