Googlexit

EU Copyright Directive will require search engines and aggregators to pay publishers for the right to display news results. Google is threatening to ghost Europe while at the same time local media companies say it needs them. Does it?

Prince’s Sign O’ the Times and Radiohead’s Ok Computer star in most of my top-albums-of-all-time lists — yes, lists, plural, because if I’m antiquated enough to mention “albums” in 2019, I’ve clearly gone full screen mode on High Fidelity phase.

That said, I’m excused from choosing an episode that pits Prince against Thom Yorke as one of my favourites in pop music tales. Almost 11 years ago, during Coachella, Prince decided to cover Radiohead’s Creep. His performance went straight to YouTube, which peeved The-Artist-Formerly-Known-As — because, you know, Prince had that thing with the internet. Immediately, he sent his legal team to remove the video, but when Radiohead got wind of the story, Yorke said: “Really? He’s blocked it? Well, tell him to unblock it, it’s our song”.

This chronicle is no Keith-Richards-snorting-his-father’s-ashes, but it serves the purpose to depict the European Union Copyright Directive that, among other things, is setting news aggregators against media companies…