There we go again. The publishers have lobbied for their money printing machine for quite some time. They got one in Germany, but then noticed that when they use it, they will stab themselves in the back.
The ideal legislation would guarantee them an income, no matter what happens and what other people may want to do. But just like they can't come up with a satisfiable business model in this era, they can't find how to write such legislation. If they do ask Google (The relevant law in Germany has the nickname Lex Google, because it was clearly aimed at Google, while also hurting others.) to pay for news snippets, Google will simply terminate news and the publishers will see an immense drop in visitors, which leads to an equal drop in ad revenue.
The law the Guardian talks about has been pushed by Axel Voss, a CDU MEP who emphasized how all those poor artists and content creators need to be protected.
https://qz.com/1389385/article-11-and-article-13-axel-voss-is-surprised-by-eu-copyright-law/
Not surprisingly, all those articles that actually meant to protect artists etc were weakened or eliminated behind closed doors as soon as the European Parliament had voted for this law. Publishers won again and Mr. Voss will very likely receive a nice Christmas bonus from his masters.
https://netzpolitik.org/2018/urheberrecht-aerger-im-eu-parlament-ueber-verwaesserten-schutz-fuer-kuenstler/
(German only, sorry)
Unfortunately, history needs to repeat again and again. Btw, the Guardian article mentions something the publishers always distort in their arguments: Google is not making money from news, there are no ads. And if learn-resistant publishers get their way, soon it will be hard to find news - at least in Europe...
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/nov/18/google-news-may-shut-over-eu-plans-to-charge-tax-for-links
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