Murdoch Threatens Google Ban Over "Stolen" Stories

November 10, 2009 8:15 p.m. EST

Sydney, Australia (AHN) - Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corp., is threatening to ban Google from carrying content from his media kingdom.

In an interview with Sky News in Australia, Murdoch said he forbid the search engine from linking to stories published in his newspapers once his publications' websites begin charging to access content.

Google and similar search engines typically publish the headline and a synopsis of a story and link it to the original source of the full story.

Murdoch accused the search engines of stealing his content and using it without having to pay for it.

He said newspapers could only make money if readers were forced to go to the originals sources of stories where they would have to pay for access.

At least one of Murdoch's newspaper websites, for the Wall Street Journal, already requires a paid subscription to read most stories.

In a video of the interview, Murdoch said "just search people" had no loyalty to the news sites where the stories were published.

In response, Google said it was up to companies to decide if their content was carried on Google News. Simple technical steps would remove the content if the company asked.

News Corp. has an existing business relationship with Google. In August 2006, the two companies inked a deal in which Google would pay News Corp. at least $900 million to provide search and advertising on MySpace and other website owned by Murdoch.