From Globes:
The Knesset is demanding royalties from Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) for Israeli content. The Knesset Finance Committee has begun discussing a bill submitted by MK Erel Margalit (Labor) which would require Google to transfer 7% annually of its revenue from Israeli copyrighted Internet content, which will be divided up by a special committee that will be set up.To meet the criteria for the bill for receiving royalties, a content site must be active for more than one year and the information presented must be updated or changed at least weekly, and at least 30% of the content must be produced by the website itself. According to the bill, the royalties will be deposited in an account managed by the Ministry of Finance's Accountant General from where it will be transferred to content producers that meet the criteria and rules.
The bill is based on the fact that search engines like Google rake in huge profits but they would not be able to exist without the sites to which it refers surfers. Margalit said that very often surfers make do with looking at the results from the search engine without entering the relevant page on the original site in order to receive the requested information.
Margalit warned, "Israeli democracy is in danger. Google is not IDB. Google has become a search engine technology tycoon in the State of Israel. Technology is an important means to bridge gaps and the Israeli economy needs new thinking about the connection between high-tech and technology and the country's economy and growth."
If anybody knows what he is talking about on this issue, it would be Erel Margalit. He is the founder of a Jerusalem-based incubator for hi-tech firms. There is probably nobody more qualified than him in Knesset (maybe other than Naftali Bennet who made millions selling his hi-tech company), and most other places, to come up with such a plan.
My question is do other governments do the same and why not just let each individual copyright holder claim royalties from Google? Why does the government need to be involved in collection and distribution? Maybe they think Google will trample each claimant on his own - no one claimant will be big enough for Google to pay them any attention, so the government needs to step in to protect them all.
Maybe Google can make these payments all through Google Wallet..
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