Google, papers to face off in court
A Belgian court today will hear Google Inc.’s defense against complaints from local newspapers that it stole content from their websites without paying or asking permission.
This will be the first time that Google argues its case after the Brussels-based Court of First Instance ordered the Mountain View, Calif.-based company to remove Belgian French-language newspaper content from its news index. The court threatened to impose daily fines of 1 million euros ($1.28 million).
Google failed to appear at an earlier hearing that led up to that ruling and asked for another opportunity to defend itself against the charges made by Copiepresse, a copyright protection group that represents the country’s French-language editors.
Copiepresse had claimed that Google ignored its original requests to remove content. The group said it had a much happier experience with Microsoft Corp.’s MSN Belgian site and had entered talks to find a solution.
Google’s French- and Dutch-language Belgian news pages are now empty of much local content, largely containing reports from news agencies, news websites and foreign newspapers.
Spokeswoman Jessica Powell said Google had complied with the ruling when the company received it in mid-September. She said the company had stripped out Belgian newspaper content from Google News and published the entire text of the judgment on its home page.
“We’re glad to have the opportunity to argue the substance,” Powell said. “We think that search engines are a real benefit to publishers and drive valuable traffic to their websites.”
Google News features small photos and excerpts from news reported elsewhere, with links to entire articles hosted on news providers’ own websites.
Google says its service is lawful and drives traffic to newspaper sites because people need to click through to the original publisher to read the full story. The site displays stories from news agencies, foreign newspapers and Internet sites belonging to local television stations.
Powell said the Internet search company tried strenuously to give newspapers the opportunity to be excluded from the site if they wanted.
The company also tried to calm publishers’ fears this month by releasing Sitemaps, a tool that aims to give websites more control over what content they do or don’t want included in Google News. It is currently only available to English-language publishers.
Newspapers are working in a similar direction with the World Assn. of Newspapers, which has launched a yearlong project to help websites decide what they want listed in search engines.
Google News, which debuted in 2002, scans thousands of news outlets and highlights the top stories under common categories such as world and sports. Many stories carry a small image, or thumbnail, along with the headline and the first sentence or two. Visitors can click on the headline to read the full story at the source website.
The French news agency AFP has sued Google for at least $17.5 million in damages in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. AFP contends that the Google service adds little value because its news site looks much like those of AFP subscribers.
Separately, Google has agreed to pay the Associated Press for stories and photographs. Neither Google nor New York-based AP have disclosed financial terms or other details because of a nondisclosure agreement.
