Lisbon, 21 June 2013

Mike Holderness, chair of the IFJ/EFJ Authors' rights expert group (AREG) gave a presentation at the European Dialogue Internet Governance in the session Who makes money with content? Who should pay for content?

"It is vital to society that it be possible to make a living as a professional, independent journalist, to hold power to account", he said.

Holderness differenciates creative works from "content". He recalls in particular that fundamental principles of droit d'auteur are about rights of the individual, not commoditised content. Looking at Google's business model he points out that free information on the net  will ultimately mean that there is nothing left to adverstise on Google that attracts money.