Judge Posner on the Future of Newspapers

In the June 21 post to his blog, Judge Richard A. Posner of the United States 7th Circuit Court of Appeals writes about the newspaper business and suggests that, to survive, papers may have to end hyperlinks:

Expanding copyright law to bar online access to copyrighted materials without the copyright holder's consent, or to bar linking to or paraphrasing copyrighted materials without the copyright holder's consent, might be necessary to keep free riding on content financed by online newspapers from so impairing the incentive to create costly news-gathering operations that news services like Reuters and the Associated Press would become the only professional, nongovernmental sources of news and opinion.

I predict that, at a minimum, there will likely be a transition from free web access to newspaper content to micro payments from readers in the near future.