Internet giant Google said on Monday it would appeal against a Belgian court ruling that threatens to undermine the rationale behind its hugely popular global network of news sites.
The court ruled that Google was breaking the law by including headlines and links to online stories from the Belgian press in its Google News service.
The case was brought by Copiepress, an organisation that manages copyright for the French and German-speaking Belgian press, including La Derniére Heure, La Libre Belgique and Le Soir.
In its judgement, details of which only emerged on Monday despite being originally issued on September 5, the court said Google would be liable for a fine of â,¬1-million for every day it did not remove the offending content from the recently-launched Belgian site.
”We are asking for Google to pay and seek our authorisation to use our content … Google sells advertising and makes money on our content,” said Copiepress general secretary, Margaret Boribon.
Google, which said it only learned of the judgement last Friday, confirmed that it had removed any links on its Belgian site pointing to the newspapers concerned, and was in the process of removing them from all its global sites.
While many media groups have welcomed Google News as a means of boosting traffic, others believe they are benefiting the Google brand and boosting its user figures without any recompense.
Last year Agence France-Presse (AFP) sued Google in France over a similar dispute, claiming that it had removed photo credits and copyright notices. Google subsequently removed all of the agency’s content from its network.
Google News, which launched in the United States in 2001, was one of the first spin-offs from the successful search engine. It launched in the United Kingdom three years later, scanning 4 500 news sources on the web and deciding their importance via complex formulas based on factors including their prominence, frequency and the original source.
It displays the headlines, together with a summary and picture. Clicking on the headline takes the user to the original website.
Google argued it did not require the permission of the news organisations concerned but promised to remove the links if they complained. A spokesperson said the company believed the case was ”entirely unnecessary”. ”Google has a clear policy of respecting the wishes of content owners. If a newspaper does not want to be part of Google News … all they have to do is ask,” he added.
Google has yet to introduce advertising on its Google News sites, and analysts have said it is reluctant to do so for fear of further antagonising newspaper groups, which are grappling with the threats and opportunities presented by the internet.
”Google News benefits publishers by making it easier for people to find their content,” argued the spokesperson.
”It is important to remember that we never show more than the headlines and a few snippets of text. If people want to read the entire story, they have to click through to the newspaper’s website.”
Google’s stated aim to ”organise the world’s information” is increasingly taking it into conflict with media owners as it expands into new areas.
It is also facing a concerted lobby from the book publishing industry against its plans to digitise copyrighted books without their permission. It wants to use the contents of five of the world’s most extensive academic libraries — including the Bodleian in Oxford and the New York public library — which has sparked a furious reaction from some publishers and two court cases in the US are pending. – Guardian Unlimited Â