I guess publishers would only be happy if Google paid, meaning publishers bluffed EU, but not Google.

I think EU is happy with the outcome.

And the publishers deserve it.

I also think it is fair that the tech giants starts to pay, and maybe we can find a more reasonable model later.

Why should they pay publishers for the privilege of promoting the publishers content? It's not like a snippet is a substitute for the content.

I'm not saying this is a good idea.

I'm saying publishers convinced EU that it was a good idea and now they got what they deserved instead of what they wanted.

It also feels right that Google should pay, but I want them to pay ordinary VAT / sales tax on ad sales instead of this.

> I want them to pay ordinary VAT / sales tax on ad sales instead of this.

that would make far more sense

It many times is a perfectly good substitute.

Any content that can be replaced by 1 sentence is of negligible value.

news is 99.9% of the time just that. Who What Wher When. The Why and How, How do we know, and How does it compare makes it journalism.

Everyone expected that.