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Fencing Off the Web

04/22/2014 - 11h12

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SUZANA SINGER
ombudsman@uol.com.br

Folha is closing the fence around its content on the Internet. The most recent step was to ban those who are not subscribers from "copying and pasting." They can no longer reproduce a text (or passage from it) to send to a friend by email, share on Facebook or include in school work.

Those who try to copy and paste get the following message: "Texts, photos, art and videos in Folha are protected by Brazilian copyright legislation. Don't reproduce the contents of the newspaper in any means of communication, electronic or printed, without authorization ... The objective of these rules is to protect the investment that Folha makes in the quality of its journalism."

To share a text, the Internet reader can show a link - those who are interested can access the newspaper's site - which makes the audience grow.

The new measure increased the irritation of online readers. "I wasn't able to spread a beautiful text by Reinaldo Azevedo. This ban hurts Folha's ability to expand its reach. You select an article, send it to several friends, who send it along to other users and so on," complained Camilo Viana, 83, a retired manager.

Businessman Adriano Claret, 37, wanted to send a passage from a column by Elio Gaspari to his mother, but he was blocked. "It is as bizarre as putting "Folhaspies" in bars and, if someone comments on news they saw in the newspaper, the "Folhaspy" covers the person's mouth and demands that they click on the text on the cell phone instead of telling it," he argued.

The ban on "copy paste" is just one more in a series of measures that Folha has taken to encourage Internet readers to subscribe.

In 2012, it installed a "paywall" system which allows brief navigation for free (20 texts per month). After that, last year, there was a restriction on commentary: only subscribers could post opinions about stories and columns freely - everyone else had a limit.

Charging for the news online is one of the solutions found by print publications to compensate their losses in circulation and advertising. The collateral effect is to not exploit the possibility that the Internet will spread the content and, consequently, the brand.

The initial bet was that a big audience on websites would attract so much advertising that it would not be necessary to charge readers, like on broadcast TV, but that's not what happened. A good share of the advertising revenues flowed to Google, Facebook et al, and the economic situation of newspapers remained difficult.

Now, what's left is the unfriendly, and for some, undemocratic role - because it decreased the reach of the debate - to erect a barrier to access of texts online. It's up to the newsroom to persuade, with real quality content, Internet readers to pass through the turnstile.

WHO KILLED BERNARDO, 11?

Readers found it strange that Folha did not identify those accused of killing Bernardo Boldrini, 11, in Três Passos, Rio Grando do Sul state. When coverage began, the newspaper left out the names of the three people in jail - the father, the boy's stepmother, and a friend of hers - allegedly because it could not reach the defense attorneys.

"Folha did not publish the names of those accused of being involved in such a serious family crime for not having, up to then, the possibility, of contacting them," the newsroom said.

The concern about not exposing those accused is praiseworthy when there is no "other side," but this is not the newspaper's norm. On Monday, the news about a pedestrian being run over in the Tatuapé neighborhood of São Paulo carried the name of the driver, who tried to escape without helping the victim, even without hearing his version of what happened.

It is difficult to create a rule because the variety of situations is immense, but the metrics of the seriousness of the crime can't be a determining factor. On the Internet, the name of the driver who hit the pedestrian, unintentionally, will forever be associated with the crime.

Even the condition of only publishing names when you get the accused person's version of events is complicated because lawyers can adopt a tactic of not responding to the press to help their clients.

What can be done is an attempt to maintain coherence. In the tragic end of Bernardo, omitting the names gives the impression of unjustified protection of those accused.

Translated by JOHN WRIGHT

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