Zeus_Hunt Posted September 19, 2006 Share Posted September 19, 2006 Google is facing another setback against its News service after a court in Belgium ruled the search giant is violating copyright law by indexing and linking to stories in Belgian newspapers. The decision is the latest in a series of challenges against the site.The Belgian Association of Newspaper Editors filed the complaint against Google, claiming that newspapers are losing money because the company is linking directly to stories rather than a publication's homepage. Google does not reproduce content itself, but does make it searchable.The association hopes to convince Google to pay fees for access to Belgian content, an idea that has so far largely failed to catch on. Google did agree to pay the Associated Press licenses fees for its stories and photographs, but that deal is expected to be for a special section where Google will directly republish the content.Like a handful of other news outlets, the AP was not pleased with the way Google News aggregated its content, providing snippets of articles and thumbnails of AP images. The company, which is owned by a consortium of U.S. news organizations, approached Google about licensing.Agence France Presse, meanwhile, took a more litigious approach, suing Google last year and demanding $17.5 million in damages. AFP asserts that Google never got permission from the wire service to link or display its stories or pictures.Google has always maintained that linking and displaying thumbnails of images fall under fair use of copyrighted material. The Belgian Court of First Instance disagreed with that assessment and ordered Google to cease linking to the content or face a daily fine of 1 million euros."Our objective is not to stop Google from delivering their service - they're very good," remarked Margaret Boribon, secretary-general of the Belgian Association of Newspaper Editors. "We just want it clear that they can't use content the way they are." Boribon hopes other European newspaper organizations will follow Belgium's lead. View: Original Article Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eBait Posted September 19, 2006 Share Posted September 19, 2006 ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeus_Hunt Posted September 21, 2006 Author Share Posted September 21, 2006 Lawyers for Google in Belgium said on Wednesday they planned to appeal a court ruling in the country that ordered the search giant to stop linking to Belgian publications on its Google News site. The company is also refusing to add a link to the decision on its homepage.The Belgian Court of First Instance ordered it to publish the decision or face a daily fine of 500,000 euros. Google says the demand is unnecessary due to the publicity the case has already received. The court will decide on the matter Friday, with a full appeal slated to begin at the end of November. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeus_Hunt Posted September 26, 2006 Author Share Posted September 26, 2006 After initially refusing to comply with a court order in Belgium to publish on its homepage the decision of a case that demanded it to stop linking to Belgian newspapers without their consent, Google has relented. The company's once-sparse .be homepage now contains the over 2000-word court order at the bottom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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