Here's a debate and let us know what side you are on: 1) Google displays news information from millions of sources, reaps all the benefits, but is not required, but law, to give anything back in return, such as funds or services. Or 2) Google simply shows you where to find the answers, and directs traffic to the actual sites, helping them with leads and conversions.
The Spanish Congress ruled Google will have to pay a tax.[/caption]

As far as the Spanish courts are concerned, it doesn't matter what side you have come out on, they have made a ruling and it will be enforced.

"The Spanish are the latest to promote a "Google Tax" that would benefit news publishers. One house of the country's Congress has already passed legislation, with the other poised to do so," reported Greg Sterling.

Basically, Google will be charged and must pay any publisher from which they displayed content. The logic behind the law is that even though Google is just showing web results, those snippets have enough information that the user doesn't need to click on the actual site. The Google platform is engaging in a form a plagiarism, the court argues, where they display content without permission or payment in order to make money. Google doesn't create the content but displays it, so they are violating copyright law as well, the court found.

Could this be the end of search? No, but just imagine if the crawlers had to pay for every single result they displayed? Maybe it's time for the search engines to switch to a non-profit format.