[nindalf]

And yet the same newspapers will protest vigorously is Google removes news completely. Google can opt out of this so called benefit without losing much. But newspapers desperately need this traffic.

Your theory that Google is benefiting more from this arrangement than the newspapers themselves isn’t true.

[shkkmo]

> And yet the same newspapers will protest vigorously is Google removes news completely. Google can opt out of this so called benefit without losing much. But newspapers desperately need this traffic.

Google can't actually. Google has been ordered to display links and snippets from French newspapers and is explicitly not allowed to remove French newspapers from their results.

[nindalf]

That’s my point. The French newspapers need Google for traffic. And so they (unofficially) partnered with the French government and courts to complete the shakedown. The courts force the use of snippets, then the government says “well you’re using these snippets so you must pay for them”.

[egeozcan]

So, in practice, Google has been ordered to pay. As a European, I can't sympathize with the French newspapers.

Perhaps they can disable the news part completely when viewed from France or does this also include search results?