A new copyright law in Spain is forcing Google to shut down its Google News. In a post on blog today, the company says the service's closure is "truly disappointing" given the new law that will take effect in January. 
The company will begin removing access from Spanish publishers from December 16, before shutting down the entire service in that country.
New Spanish legislation gives publishers who use services like Google News the right to charge even for excerpts of news used by the news aggregator. The law obliges all publishers to charge for their content, even those who do not want money.
Google, on the other hand, will not be allowed to display ads or make money in any way from the service in question, and will therefore cease operations as it will no longer be viable.
Perhaps the worst part of this is that Google will remove Spanish publishers from global results as part of the country's shutdown and exclusion.
The new Spanish law, dubbed the “Google Tax,” was passed as part of an effort to extract €80 million from local media outlets. Unfortunately, when Google pulls the plug on its News service, things will get a lot worse for publishers.
