Posted on 02/13/2007 9:07:23 AM PST by george76
Google Inc. violated the copyright of Belgian newspaper publishers when it posted extracts from their stories on its Google News Web site, a Belgian court ruled on Tuesday.
The judgment upholds an earlier decision from the Court of First Instance in Brussels, which required Google to remove the content from Belgium's French- and German-language newspapers from its site. It could open the door to further lawsuits and limit the ability of search engines in Europe to display copyright material on their Web sites.
The Belgian newspapers, represented by the trade group Copiepresse, had argued that Google profited unfairly by posting short extracts of their stories on its Web sites. Google appealed the initial judgment and the result of that appeal was announced on Tuesday.
"Google cannot claim to be an exception under copyright law," the court said in its decision.
Margaret Boribon, Copiepresse's secretary general, called the ruling "a very good result for us" and said it largely upholds the court's original findings in September..
Microsoft said Tuesday that it would provisionally remove all links to the Belgian newspaper content from its Web sites rather than become embroiled in a legal dispute. "Microsoft however underlines that these measures do not imply any acknowledgement or recognition of Copiepresse's rights and that it reserves all rights," the company said.
(Excerpt) Read more at technology.canoe.ca ...
Copiepresse represents only the French language newspapers. De Standaard, a Flemish paper, isn’t part of the lawsuit but has asked to be pulled from Google’s index nonetheless. Not sure about Belgisch Staatsblad, which appears to publish in multiple languages.
http://www.ipdemocracy.com/archives/2007/02/13/#002326
Microsoft is doing what Google should do: boycott the newspapers. If the newspapers' websites depend on eyeballs looking at them and people clicking on their ads, disappearing from Google will cost them vastly more than they could win from Google. It will be like having a small town just off an interstate highway, pissing off the highway commissioner and suddenly finding their exit closed. Sure people can get to you from the back roads if they really want to, but your traffic will plummet and your newspaper will die.
(How is Google not in the FR spell checker?)
The Belgian newspapers are happy and stupid...well, they do speak french ?
They likely believe that a fee paid will be wonderful. You are correct that they would lose tons of traffic.
in Belgium it’s quite likely after a preliminary negative ruling that Google will lose a copyright suit brought by Belgian newspapers. A ruling against Google could have EU-wide implications because of relatively consistent copyright laws and force Google into a negotiation to license content from newspapers.
If that were to happen it would set an unhappy precedent for Google.
http://gesterling.wordpress.com/2007/02/02/google-legal-woes-partly-about-market-power/
Extracts are now violations of copyrights?
I am so confused...
Very confusing....
I think that the french speaking Belgium newspapers want to get some money from the search engine people ( not just Google and Microsoft ).
But they miss the bigger picture...IMO
That is the question.
but not just us at FR.
So far , this is just Belgium.
So basically, it means that to the world of the web, these sites do not exist. Hmmm. I am not sure they actually won.
OK - I'll stay tuned.
Or....'stuned' :)
The french speakers likely think that they have won an ego battle against an english speaking company.
You point is well taken : they will disappear from the www.
Can you say "cutting off your nose to spite your face"?? I knew you could!
This court case only involves Google, the biggest, but based upon this I can see *every* search engine removing all links to the complaining newspapers - to protect themselves from the same type lawsuit- with the resultant precipitous drop in readership. Perhaps they think that if nobody sees their content online, then everyone will be forced to buy their dead tree version. In this brave new world, maybe they should look to the NYT, WaPO, LAT, and myriad of other dead tree rags and see the decline of advertising, subscriptions, and revenues.
If virtually all the search engines pulled all links to the newspapers from their search engines to spite them because they can't use excerpts and links in their "news" pages, exactly how will anybody even find the newspapers? And the search engines have every right to do that-- they are, after all, private organizations that don't have to "play fair" and give their links equally to all. At least until the socialist liberals come 'round and force them to because everyone should be "equal".
These people are the poster child for short-sightedness and the phrase "load gun, point at foot, pull trigger". It'll be interesting to watch their revenues over the next couple of years.
Copyright islands adrift in a sea of information and not a drop of reason to quench a thirsty sojourner.
Ready, shoot, aim
Any publication that doesn't want it's stuff posted here is removed by the mods.
Thank you for the ping george.
Interesting!
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