Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News Corporation, said he is likely to remove his newspapers’ stories from Google’s search index once his company has established a system to start charging for online content.
News Corp is planning to start charging for access to its newspaper websites, including the Sun and the Times from next year – however the planned June start may be delayed.
Murdoch told Sky News Australia that a number of websites, including Google, Microsoft and Ask.com ‘steal our stories without payment”.
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His comments mark a continuation of his war of words Google in which he has previously said Google was guilty of “kleptomania” and acting as a “parasite”.
Asked during the interview why News Corp didn’t take Google’s advice and de-list from its search rankings, the 78-year-old mogul said: ‘I think we will…
‘But that will be when we start changing. We do it all ready with the Wall Street Journal. We have a wall, but it’s not right to the ceiling, you can get the first paragraph of ever story but if you are not a subscriber to WSJ.com you get a paragraph and a subscription form.”
Murdoch said he did not agree that Google using snippets of his newspapers stories in its listings could be considered fair use adding that his company believed that distinction could be challenged in the courts.
He said: “There’s a doctrine called fair use, which we believe to be challenged in the courts and would bar it altogether… but we’ll take that slowly.”
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