[DisjointedHunt]

Anything this guy writes gets gobbled up and worshipped mindlessly to no end. The opening here was so crass i didn't bother reading the rest (yet) until i find a better time to do so and have put my strong feelings aside.

The News aren't just about distribution, you moron. If we didn't have large companies such as twitter and Facebook misclassified deliberately through government protection and instead called out as the publishers they are, newspapers would be one helluva profitable business line.

Just because economic forces were over ruled in favor of a national security advantage in keeping the American tech industry growing into the massive multinational beast it is, that does not automatically disqualify the hard journalistic effort in contributing to the large subset of content that drives engagement and thus clicks and thus ad dollars for many of these businesses.

[ryan93]

They aren't publishers. Me posting a link to the NYTimes on facebook is not the same as writing a NYTimes article. That fact that NYTimes articles get more boost from the algorithm than a sketchy right wing site does not make facebook a publisher

[DisjointedHunt]

If your Intellectual Property is used in any commercial setting without reimbursement, that's theft.

Just because you post a link somewhere, it does not automatically waive the commercial interests of the platform you're posting to.

In another strain of the argument, you posting to Facebook and Facebook later choosing to rank and distribute that content to their liking with you having ZERO control over that is the equivalent of using individuals as proxies to steal and propagate content.

You can't just start a website with stolen content plastered all over, say its coming "From the users" and deny any culpability.