Google Ordered to Pay Up in Belgium

UPDATED: A Belgian court
today reportedly sided with European newspaper publishers, ruling
Internet search giant Google must pay fines for
violating that country’s copyright laws.

Along with demanding the removal of all infringing links to Belgian
newspaper articles displayed by Google or Google News, the court
fined the search company $32,500 per day, The Wall Street Journal
reported. If the fines are retroactive to an earlier September
ruling, the penalty could reach more than euro 3.45 million (US$4.4 million).

The court also ordered Google to get permission from copyright
holders or face daily fines.

“Google is disappointed with today’s judgment, which we will
appeal,” a spokeswoman told internetnews.com, adding that Google News is
“entirely legal.”

The company said publishers benefit from Google and Google News
driving traffic to their Web sites.

The search company said it already provides a way for publishers to
opt out of its Internet sweeps through robots.txt files. Those files
limit what pages search engines can collect.

“You can easily shut the door,” Gartner analyst Allen Weiner told
internetnews.com. Publishers can’t ask for the exposure Google
provides and then close their sites to search engines. “They can’t
have it both ways.”

Content providers need to face the reality of a digital world. “It goes against the flow of information on the Web,” said Weiner. Publishers can use an XML feed to control what information is available.

The Belgian ruling reaffirmed a court decision that said
Google violated copyright law by displaying links to news articles
without permission.

That case, brought in September by Copiepresse, an association
of 18 French, Belgian and German newspapers, claimed Google violated
the nations’ copyright laws by caching links to news stories the
newspapers would normally archive and sell by subscription.

After the Belgian Court of First Instance originally ruled against
Google, the company appealed, claiming it didn’t know about the hearing.

While a loss, the most recent ruling trims the $1.3 million daily
fine threatened in September to $32,500.

Copiepresse has sent warning letters to Yahoo and
Microsoft’s MSN to remove
offending news links, pay fees or face fines, the newspaper reported.

This isn’t the first time Google has been hauled into court for its
linking practices.

In 2005, Agence France Press (AFP), France’s equivalent of the
Associated Press or Reuters, sued Google for $15 million, charging Google’s new crawler technology cut into its subscription revenue.

Get the Free Newsletter!

Subscribe to our newsletter.

Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis

News Around the Web