[ganomi]

Maybe they will take this to the Federal Cartel Office now: "See, Google has such a large impact on our revenue, they are a monopoly." Of course the "Leistungsschutzrecht" has been ridiculous from the start but it might help them to prove their point to take it further.

[pgeorgi]

But it's hard to argue, even with a monopoly, that someone whose free service benefits you in the millions has to pay for that privilege.

[psykovsky]

Because google could exist without content to index...

[shiven]

Because google could exist without their content to index...

On one hand they whine about Google's power and on the other they want the benefits too? Might as well complain about the enormous power of gravity over us and legislate it away.

[nevi-me]

Google should just cut the hosepipe, and let's see what happens. Though that's wishful thinking as it would be a political move bound to end up leaving a mess everywhere

[lotu]

I don't think google news even has any ads so Google theoretically isn't even making any money off of it.

[dhimes]

From the article:

Doepfner said the resulting dramatic drop in traffic to his company's publications was proof of Google's overwhelming power in the search market. He said he hoped lawmakers, courts and competition regulators would take action to curb its powers.

"Others will have to pick up the ball now," the Springer boss told reporters on a conference call following the publication of the Berlin-based company's quarterly results.

So indeed it sounds like that's exactly what they are saying.