Wall Street Journal Error Filled Editorial Buys Into Ridiculous Copyright Office Conspiracy Theory

I thought we were done with this. After cooler heads prevailed, and people realized that the giant conspiracy theory over "Google's" supposed string pulling to get the Register of Copyright fired, actual reporters stepped in and discovered it wasn't true. The reasons behind the firing were much more mundane (and for what it's worth, one of our commenters has a credible explanation for how one longtime anti-Google propagandist was the key force in spreading the claim in the first place). But, the Wall Street Journal (owned by News Corp -- a company run by someone obsessed with made up stories about Google) has decided to try to put some legitimacy to the rumors by posting a ridiculous editorial fanning the already debunked conspiracy theory flames... but doing so in a hilariously uneducated fashion. Why, it's almost as if they just decided "let's bash Google" and didn't have even the slightest underlying knowledge of the facts to make their case. It starts right up top:Notice a problem there? Yeah, the WSJ editorial board doesn't seem to know the difference between copyrights and patents. And yet it thinks it knows what's going on. Okay, but you say that this is just in the subhead, and headline writers get this wrong all the time. Sure, but that doesn't explain all the other fundamental errors in the editorial itself.

Most Americans think of Google as a search engine doing unalloyed social good, but the company also wants to make money and wield political influence along the way. So you don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to notice that an abrupt change of leadership at the U.S. Copyright Office is good news for Google, which aims to pay less for profiting from the property of others.

Actually, yes, you kind of do have to be a conspiracy theorist, because everyone who has any actual knowledge of what's gone on has said it's not even close to true. And furthermore, Google does not "aim to pay less for profiting from the property of others." Whatever legitimate complaints plenty of people may have about Google, it's focus is not on profiting off of others' content, but in "making the world's information accessible." But, of course, to a company like News Corp that has failed to adapt to the internet, and which has directly branded Google as "the enemy" it's no surprise that it would misrepresent what Google does and what it wants. But that doesn't mean it gets to make up facts. Though it tries.

There is some circumstantial evidence that Google’s lobbying influence was brought to bear in removing Ms. Pallante, though both Google and Ms. Pallante declined to talk to us. Google’s business model is essentially making money off other people’s content, and the company’s strategy has been to infringe on copyrighted material like books and fight it out later in court. The copyright office administers laws that protect owners.

So, uh, once again we see the WSJ get basic factual things wrong here. "Infringe on copyrighted material like books and fight it out later in court." An honest publication would point out that Google easily won its lawsuit at both the district and appeals court level, with both saying that Google's actions were fair use and thus not infringement. For the WSJ to flat out lie and claim that Google was infringing is ridiculous. And suggests either a failure to understand the basics of copyright law, or a deliberate misrepresentation of the facts to slam Google. And, once again, the claim that it's Google's business model to "make money off other people's content" is not true. It's not Google's business models. Google's business model is to capture people's attention by providing a search engine that gets people to reveal their preferences -- and then Google shoves ads that may be responsive to those preferences in front of them. Whatever you think of that business model, it's not what the WSJ says. Hell, if Google's business model was really predicated off of making money on other people's content, shouldn't News Corp be beating the pants off them, since it has its own content first