Seeking to calm tensions that erupted from an Associated Press copyright controversy earlier this week, Google CEO Eric Schmidt told newspaper publishers Tuesday that Google is a friend to newspapers, but to survive, those newspapers have to get used to the idea of being not only creators of content but aggregators of it, too.
"In that model, newspapers become platforms for the technology to use their services, to build businesses on top of them, and also to interlink—hyperlink—all the different information sources that end users will take," said Schmidt in a keynote speech to the Newspaper Association of America in San Diego Tuesday, according to numerous published reports of his remarks.
Earlier this week, the Associated Press said it would take legal action against Web sites that used its work—and the work of news organizations it distributes—without permission. In a statement, the AP said it would "develop a system to track content distributed online to determine if it is being legally used."
While a statement from the AP did not specify companies whose platforms concern the news service, news executives told The New York Times that they're worried about how searches for their articles allow Google and other sites to make money selling ads against search terms.
The AP said it would create its own search pages to point readers to breaking news.
The AP also used the Newspaper Association meeting to introduce rate reductions and new content options for member newspapers, according to the statement.
Schmidt's comments about newspapers and Google working hand-in-hand were echoed Tuesday by Google's Associate General Counsel for Products and Intellectual Property, Alexander Macgillivray.
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