Rupert Murdoch vs. The Web

There was an old folk tale whose name I can't recall. About a king who thought he was so powerful he could command the waters of the ocean. So he had his throne placed on a beach, and tried to command the waters. He yelled and screamed, but the tide eventually engulfed him, and the waves carried him away to his death.

I suggest that king was Neil Young (1995, Mirrorbal, 3d track).

That would be King Canute, though your version is slightly garbled: http://www.viking.no/e/people/e-knud.htm

Might be. Might also be one of those tales that exists in many different forms in different cultures, like the tale of Noah + Ark. I've not heard it since I was a kid, so my memory of it is equally garbled. :P

Anyhoo... the point of the thing was that it sounds a bit like King Rupert.

In the original King Canute fable the point was that the courtiers fawned all over the King and told him he was the "master of the universe" so in order to disabuse the sycophants of their dishonesty Canute told them he could keep the tide from coming in. When he failed he made the dishonest fawners look stupid.

In Murdoch's case he perhaps he actually thinks he *is* master of the universe. We the internet will disabuse him.

I almost hate to bring this up, but...

How sure are we that NewsCorp/Murdoch is making *that* bad of a deal? I mean, stranger things have happened. The success of MS-DOS comes to mind as a very odd thing that actually happened. The fact that major corporations use Excel and Word strikes me as a very odd thing, but it's undisputable fact.

Suppose that people start to use Bing *because* NewsCorp stuff appears in it, and doesn't appear in Google? What then? Do all the pundits wither up and blow away? Does Ballmer get declared High Epopt of The Internet by acclamation? Do we all just grit our collective teeth and buy Windows 7?

"The Internet treats censorship as a network fault, and routes around it."

No matter who is doing the censoring.

Quoting:Suppose that people start to use Bing *because* NewsCorp stuff appears in it, and doesn't appear in Google?

Suppose instead that people stop reading NewsCorp stuff, because it never comes up in Google. But isn't Murdocks problem the fact that people are reading newsCorp stuff for free, dirty losy freeloaders.

Suppose people start going directly to NewsCorp instead of using Bing OR Google.... NewsCorp would probably still complain about the hits though. :P

And in the meantime, how many NewsCorp sites don't mind using Google API's?

No, I'm not saying "tit for tat". The Google API license permits it. But (beverage-display alert!) if Murdoch has any integrity, he'll take the first step to divorce Google from NewsCorp.

Quoting: [...] if Murdoch has any integrity, [...]

What has integrity got to do with hard ass business? Nothing but a hindrance to the goal of absolute control and wealth.

So I suggest, get your priorities straight, it seems Murdoch has his aligned.

YBT*

* aka LXer's resident Shill - at your service. [Now let's see if News Corp checks don't bounce like that nickel and dime tightwad outfit MS.]