[A2k] Belgian papers seek €49m in copyright damages from Google

[Michelle Childs]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/may/28/google.pressandpublishing
Belgian papers seek €49m in copyright damages from Google

     * Julia Kollewe
     * The Guardian,
     * Wednesday May 28 2008


Belgian newspapers are pushing for up to €49m (£39m) in damages from
Google for publishing and storing their content without paying or
asking permission.

Last year the search website lost a lawsuit filed by a number of
French-language Belgian newspapers and was forced to remove their
content which had been posted on Google News and stored in its search
engine cache without the copyright owners' permission.

Copiepresse, an organisation that represents the French and German
language Belgian press, said yesterday it had summoned Google to
appear again in September before a Brussels court that will decide on
the claim for up to €49.2m in damages.

The newspaper copyright group called on Google to pay a provisional
amount of €4m.

It said the losses were calculated by a professor at the University
Libre de Bruxelles, based on articles stored via Google Search since
2001 and on Google News since it was launched in Belgium in 2006. The
group suggested setting up a panel of Belgian experts to assess the
figures if Google wanted to contest them.

A Google spokesperson said: "We have not yet received anything from
Copiepresse. We appealed the ruling of February 2007 and are awaiting
the outcome of that case."

Google has argued that search engines drive traffic to publishers'
websites and that Google News never shows more than the headines, a
few snippets of text and thumbnail images.

Copiepresse began legal action against Google after links and
summaries of articles from Le Soir and La Libre Bélgique appeared on
Google.

The Brussels court of first instance ruled in February 2007 that
Google could not call on exemptions to copyright law, such as claiming
publication of a few lines of text and links to the original page was
"fair use".


---------
Michelle Childs
Head of European Affairs
  Knowledge Ecology International
www.keionline.org / www.cptech.org
Phone:+44(0)207 226 6663 ex 252
Email: michelle.childs@keionline.org