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#Canadian #Techies: Uh, that's #stupid. You #link to things on the #web; that's its entire #point. You don't #pay to link to someone else.

Canadian #Legacy #Media: No, no, it's a great #idea. They get all kinds of #value for it, so we asked the #government to make them pay to link to us.

Techs: you get more out of it than they do. Your #content gets much wider #exposure, and the #links take people to your own #sites.

CLM: But we don't know how to #monetize that.

2/x

#Canadian #Techies: That sounds like a "you" problem. They give you the traffic, you show the visitors good content and, I dunno, sell them subscriptions or something. You figure it out.

Canadian #Legacy #Media: No, that's #hard. We liked it better when almost everyone bought one of our #newspapers every day, because we more or less own them all. There was no #competition. It was #great.

#Government: We Shall Stand Up to American Big Tech, and They Shall Pay to Link.

3/x

Techies: That's gonna get old fast.

#Government: If We Don't Stand Up ...

Techies. Told you.

#Canadian #Legacy #Media: This is gonna be #great.

Techies: #Google and #Facebook don't get as much out of #linking to your #stories as you seem to think. If you make them #pay to #link to you, they're just gonna stop linking to you.

#CLM: (in horror) Oh, they won't do that! They can't! They #need us.

Techies: Uh, not really.

4/x

#Government: And thus, C-18 is the #law of the #land! #American Big Tech must now pay to link to Canadian media.

Techies: We warned you.

#Canadian #Legacy #Media: Oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy....

#Google: Uh, it doesn't make #financial sense to #pay to #link to your #stories; we don't get much out of it.

#Facebook: Ya, us either. I guess we'll stop linking to Canadian media sites.

CLM: Noooooooooooooooooo!

Government: They can't do that, can they?

5/x

#Canadian #Legacy #Media: Hey, #government - American Big Tech stopped linking to us! Make them start again.

Government: Uh, what? You had us pass a law saying they have to pay you if they link to you. And now you want us to force them to link to you. So we'd be saying the law is now that Big Tech has to give money to you guys whether they want to or not?

CLM: Yes! Exactly!

Techies: This is even dumber than we thought it would be.

6/x

#Lawyers: If they try to make Big Tech link, and pay to link, we've got a slam-dunk case. At least we'll make money.

#Canadian #Legacy #Media: Hey! No #fair! We were supposed to get the money.

#Techies: We #told you it wasn't going to work that way. It makes no #sense. Why didn't you #listen to us?

#CLM: LA LA LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU LA LA

#Government: We Must Stand Up ...

#Techies: Oh, shut up.

7/x

#Canadian #Legacy #Media: Hey, why are you calling us legacy media?

Techies: Well, you're the old media interests. #Newspapers, commercial #TV, maybe a bit of #radio if there's any of that left.

CLM: Uh... ya, that's us, the media.

Techies: No, you're just part of the Canadian media landscape.

CLM: ... Part of?

Techies: Yes. A small part.

CLM: But we're the media!

Techies: Oh, brother. It's gonna be *that* kind of day.

8/x

#Canadian #Legacy #Media: No, what do you mean by us being "part of" a "media landscape"?

Techies: Well, people have lots of #choices for where they get their #information now. They're not limited to #commercial #television news #broadcasts and dead-tree #monopoly #newspapers any more.

CLM: Horrors! Choice? What choices do they have?

Techies: Well, the #Internet is the main one.

CLM: The Internet? What's that?

Techies: #JFC.

9/x

Techies: You know, the #internet. The thing that your #websites live on.

#Canadian #Legacy #Media: We have websites?

Techies: I need a drink.

#Government: If We Do Not Stand Up to American Big Tech ...

Techies: Don't make me come over there.

#Lawyers: <popcorn>

Techies: Ok. You got the government to pass a #law making #Google and #Facebook #pay to #link to your stories.

CLM: Ya!

Techies: Those stories are on your websites.

CLM: Oh.

10/x

Techies: See, the way it worked was, you #posted #stories on your #websites. The only people who would see your stories were those who typed "wha-wha-wha dot canadianmedia dot com" into their #browsers and came to your websites.

#Canadian #Legacy #Media: Oh, ya, we remember. The #IT #nerds said we weren't getting many visitors or something. We told them to send out more #invitations.

Techies: Were you proud when they told you you were in the tenth #percentile of your class at U?

11/x

Techies: So, anyways... #Google started #featuring #synopses of your #stories on their #news and #search #pages, which gave people an idea of what the story was, and a #link to your site so they could read the whole thing.

#Canadian #Legacy #Media: We remember that. The #nerds said they could tell where the #traffic was coming from. We said it always comes from the left, so look that way first.

Techies: Maybe it was fifth percentile.

#Government: Big Tech ...

Techies: Cram it.

12/x

Techies: Anyways... #Facebook started doing the same thing. They showed an #excerpt, and #linked back to your sites. So lots and lots and lots more people visited your websites than you were getting before.

#Canadian #Legacy #Media: Right. The #IT #nerds said we had to make our sites more #scaly or something.

Techies: Uh, right. So you were getting the #benefit of that #web #traffic. You should have been #selling #subscriptions or something. Or propeller beanies.

CLM: Ooh.

13/x

Techies: So, #Facebook and #Google were driving #traffic to your #websites by showing #summaries of your #stories, with links back to your sites. Making them #pay to do so made no sense, to them or anyone else, so they stopped linking to your sites.

#Canadian #Legacy #Media: That's bad.

Techies: It's #worse for all the good media. Wait, I meant #modern media. Uh, #grassroots media. Or ... what don't you call yourselves?

CLM: #Little media.

Techies: #Figures.

14/x

Techies: So anyway, the "little" media are hurt much worse by this. They're mostly only on the #internet. They're small, as you say. Most of their traffic came from #Facebook and #Google. #Heck, so did most of yours. But you can fall back on your big names and your #TV stations or #newspapers.

#NewMedia: Ya, it really #hurt us. I don't know if we'll #survive. We didn't even get a seat at the table when this was being #discussed; we knew it was #stupid.

Techies: Everyone did.

15/x

Techies: 'Fraid not. You're trying to #have your #cake, and #eat it too.

#Canadian #Legacy #Media: We don't get it. How do you eat your cake if you don't have it?

Techies: You didn't take any history classes, did you?

CLM: Why would we need those?

Techies: Anyways... as long as C-18 is in effect, you won't get any traffic or exposure.

CLM: That sucks! Fix it!

Techies: I give up.

17/17