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 Belgium - Copiepresse v. Google - The copyright battle continues

Back in April 2006 the Belgian newspaper group Copiepresse filed a lawsuit against Google for re-printing parts of their articles and headlines on Google News and caching their web pages. Google lost in 2007, but appealed the decision. For over a year, Google and Copiepresse went into negotiations and tried to find a solution, but it now seems those talks have broken down. Copiepresse wants Google to pay 4 million Euro immediately, and maybe more later. Professor Alain Berenboom of the Free University of Brussels estimates that the losses attributable to Google's activities were between € 32.8 million and € 49.2 million for a single year! I very much doubt that the newspapers really suffered such a loss. Quite on the contrary. Without Google, they probably would have had less visitors and less income from ads. To win the case, Copiepresse has to show that the headlines and extracts are copyright procted and with regard to the caching issue, that Google's behavior amounts to copyright infringement (which is very likely in European countries, because of the lack of a "fair use" defence).

The court case will resume on September 18 to decide if the infringements are valid and whether the damages payment is reasonable.

For more information see: Belgian group seeks up to $77.2 mln from Google, Reuters

 

 

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