On Tue, 1 Aug 2023 13:56:18 -0400 (EDT) alayne [ at ] twobikes [ dot ] ottawa [ dot ] on [ dot ] ca wrote: > See also https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2023/02/billc18reality/ > Geist argues instead for "a fund model with mandated contributions > that would support actual journalism without getting into issues such > link payments or copyright law." That would probably be better, and it wouldn't let Google / Meta / etc. wriggle out of paying by simply not linking to news stories. It's one thing to stop linking to news sites, but quite another to choose between paying into a fund and ceasing to operate at all in Canada. > It's very clear that Google, Meta, etc. have taken over most of what > used to be newspaper/TV advertising, especially since 2010. The drop > in ad revenue looks like it's going over a cliff. It's very clear to me that Google, Meta, etc. are a far higher threat to our freedom than the Canadian government is. They need to be broken up. This proposal from Google is particularly evil: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/07/googles-web-integrity-api-sounds-like-drm-for-the-web/ > But in terms of alternatives to newspaper display ads or TV ads, I > suspect that the "social media" companies are not providing what they > promise. How many of us block all online ads? See Google's proposal above. They want a world like that Black Mirror episode, where your TV watches you and ensures you consume ads. [...] > But what would be even more effective is for more governments to stop > advertising on "social", as the federal government recently has, and > divert that money to Canadian media. Unfortunately, Ottawa City > Council recently voted down a motion to do that -- the city spends 20 > percent of its ad budget on "social". I am shocked that our municpal goverment would do this. Shocked, I say! 🙄 I am very cynical about the whole situation. The Internet was an ambitious project that was pretty nice for a while, but it has now turned into a tool for greed, control and suppression of democracy. It's a net loss for humanity. Regards, Dianne. To unsubscribe send a blank message to linux+unsubscribe [ at ] linux-ottawa [ dot ] org To get help send a blank message to linux+help [ at ] linux-ottawa [ dot ] org To visit the archives: https://lists.linux-ottawa.org