Internet search services provider Google, Inc., US, is reportedly fighting a Belgian ruling that will bar the company from publishing links to local newspapers on its online news service, Google News. The hearing could decide the fate of search engines and referencing services in Europe, according to media reports.
Google is appealing a 2007 Belgian court ruling that its news search breached copyright laws, forcing it to remove links and snippets of articles from French- and German-language newspapers. According to the company's lawyers, the judge in that case seemed to have badly understood the functioning of Internet search services.
Copiepresse, a group that represents French- and German- language newspapers, and an association that represents journalists on copyright issues, were among those that filed the original lawsuit after Google News was introduced in Belgium in 2006.
In its February 13, 2007 ruling, the Brussels court ordered Google to pay €25,000 ($34,300) a day until it removed news content from Belgium's French- and German-language publications. Google had then removed articles, graphics and photos linked to the papers from all its sites and cached copies visible in searches.
Google presented its arguments on February 23, 2011 and the hearing is scheduled to resume in March. Company lawyers have presented to the court that Google gets no commercial benefit from linking articles because the news service is free. The newspapers reportedly have a second lawsuit pending against Google in which they seek up to €49.1 million for the period in which their content was visible on Google News.
According to Flip Petillion, a Brussels-based partner with Crowell & Moring LLP (who isn't involved in the matter), the case could end up in the EU's highest court due to its potential implications for search engines across Europe. The Belgian tribunal could ask the 27-nation EU's Court of Justice for guidance on how to interpret copyright rules in cases such as these. He further noted that if Google wins its appeal, it would also mean the ruling cannot be used against search engines in other European countries.
The Belgian newspapers argue that Google News doesn't generate enough traffic to their sites to make inclusion attractive. The service no longer references the newspapers involved in the case. Only Google's main search site lists the newspapers, such as La Libre Belgique and Le Soir, the most-read French-language daily in Brussels.
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