Belgian newspapers win copyright court case against Google

Belgian newspapers win copyright court case against Google

	Published : Tue, 13 Feb 2007 12:44 By : Agencies Print this Story

LONDON (AFX) - A Belgian court has dealt a blow to Google by ruling against the US internet giant in a copyright case lodged by French-language Belgian newspapers and closely watched by other media.

A Brussels court found that 'by reproducing on its Google News site articles and short extracts from articles, Google reproduces and communicates to the public works protected by copyright', the decision provided by the newspapers' lawyer said.

A year ago Copiepresse, which groups Belgium's French-language newspapers together, opened a Belgian lawsuit against Google News to require the internet portal to request their permission and pay them to show their articles on its site.

On Sept 5, a Belgian court ordered Google News to stop reproducing content from French-language and German-language newspapers in Belgium on its Belgian website and imposed fines as long as it did not respect the decision.

In that ruling, the court told the company to pay Copiepresse 1 mln eur per day for each day that the forbidden articles, pictures and graphics appeared on its site.

In today's decision, the judge backed Google's claim that the fines were 'disproportionate' and reduced them to a more are asonable' 25,000 eur per day.

Copiepresse lawyer Bernard Margrez said that that meant Google would no longer have to pay a total of 130 mln eur, but three mln eur.

The case in Belgium is being watched by other news providers, including Agence France-Presse, which has been in dispute with Google in France as well as in the United States.

After opening news websites for about thirty countries in four years, Google launched a Belgian version in January 2006, much to the concern of the country's French-speaking newspapers.

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