Belgian Newspaper Group Sues Google For $77million

By Jane McEntegart, published on May 28, 2008 at 12:50 PM
Source: Tom's Guide | Keywords: , , | Themes: Business
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Belgian Newspaper copyright group, Copiepresse is suing Google for $77 million for copyright infringements.

The search engine allegedly published and stored content in its archives from Belgian newspapers in its Google News section without paying for the content or asking permission.

Copiepresse has summoned Google to appear in a Brussels court in September. However the summons (and documents detailing the copyright infringement) have yet to reach Googles head quarters in Moutain View, California. Because of this, Google has yet to comment.

Last year, a court ruled Google violated Belgian copyright laws by publishing snippets and links to articles on Google News without permission and ordered the site to remove them, which Google did.

Google appealed the February 2007 ruling and began negotiations with the group shortly after, with the aim of coming to some sort of agreement.

Google argued that the links it provides sends traffic to the publisher’s websites and that it never shows more than a few sentence and a thumbnail image.

Additional to the damages the group is demanding a provisional payment of $6.3 million and that Google publish "in a visible and clear manner" the court ruling from last year on Google.be and news.Google.be for 20 days. If Google refuses, Copiepresse said it would seek a $1.5 million daily fine.

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Anonymous 05/29/2008 5:58 AM
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WTF it looks to me that google was helping this newspaper get web traffic and then as a thank you they go and sue google for millions!! Losers.

blackened144 05/29/2008 3:17 AM
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blackened144

I say Google should just cut them out of their service all together and ignore them like they do with the many sites that speak out against Google's ultra left wing policies.

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