Microsoft is calling on the United States to adopt Australia’s media payment law. In a blogpost, Microsoft President Brad Smith wrote that Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code “deserves serious consideration” and that the United States should not object to the law, but “copy it instead.” Smith indicated that Microsoft would support similar proposals in the European Union, Canada and other nations. Since 2000, U.S. newsroom revenues have fallen by 70 percent and employment has halved, while over 2,000 newspapers have closed across the country, according to his post. “Democracy has always started at the local level. Today, far too many local communities must nurture democracy without a Fourth Estate,” he wrote. “The cure will likely require multiple medicines. However, part of an innovative prescription has emerged from halfway around the world. “In Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has pushed forward with legislation two years in the making to redress the competitive imbalance …