For those (incl. me) who regularly look at Google News as a source for current updated news on international and domestic affairs, sports, science and technology, health and entertainment, the recent ruling of a Belgium court might be a little upsetting.
Ruling that Google news and Google search for Belgium cannot show excerpts of news from French- and German-language Belgian newspapers, the court put up a fine of $32,500 if Google violates the ruling. This follows the suing of search engine in March 05 for atleast 17.5 million dollars by the world's oldest and 3rd largest press agency( behind AP and Reuters)- Paris based Agence France Presse.
However Google has decided to appeal the ruling. " It is important to remember that both Google Web Search and Google News only ever show a few snippets of text. If people want to read the entire story they have to click through to the Web publisher's site where the information resides. We believe search engines are of real benefit to publishers because they drive valuable traffic to their Web sites." , Google spokesman Ricardo Reyes said.
This ruling could possibly have an impact on other European countries who might follow suit. This ruling is in line with various such noises that have arisen in the past against Google's privacy and copyright policy.
Meanwhile Le Soir and La Derniere Heure - two of the Belgian papers represented by Copiepresse, the group of French and German language publications that filed the suit against Google - show a slight decline in traffic over the past year (vindicating Google's stand?).
This ruling and the subsequent appeal are being watched closely by Yahoo! and MSN as Copiepresse had previously warned them to remove the articles, pictures and links from their search websites.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Have your say!