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Google Counters FTC Antitrust Concerns

Google on Tuesday issued a response to the Federal Trade Commission's staff discussion draft on potential recommendations to support the reinvention of journalism. "It's a wonderful document that takes the FTC -- and the news industry -- to school on the First Amendment, copyright, fair use, antitrust, media history, business, and technology," according to BuzzMachine blogger Jeff Jarvis. "The government and publishers should be embarrassed to need such remedial education."

In one section of the response highlighted by Jarvis, Google writes: "The large profit margins newspapers enjoyed in the past were built on an artificial scarcity: Limited choice for advertisers as well as readers. With the Internet, that scarcity has been taken away and replaced by abundance." Still, at least on the surface, Google says it want to work in partnership with news organizations -- a futile effort, according to Jarvis, considering that the industry "only wants enemies to blame for its failures."

Read the whole story at BuzzMachine »

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