A Belgian court has found Google liable for copyright infringement. However, it isn't because of YouTube.
Google News, a web service that indexes articles from various newspapers and magazines, contains links to the web versions of these publications. The Belgian Court has found that these web links to the articles, when made without the express permission of these publications, constitute copyright infringement.
Currently pending is a similar suit in the French Court, filed against Google by Agence France-Presse. Since the Belgian legal system is so similar to the French system, it now appears likely that Google will also lose their French case. Furthermore, since Belgium is a member of the European Union, this precedent can also spread throughout the EU.
But, since I am not in Belgium, and since I laugh at Belgian Copyright laws, I shall link you, my readers, to this article here.
Addendum: The name of the Belgian newpaper publisher is Copiepresse. [Hat-tip to Superelectric.]
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I find it crazy that mere linkage to the newspaper's article suffices to create a copyright infringement.
I think the argument has to be that they aggregate, on the news site, the headlines of the paper, and it's the copying of the text of the headline that creates the infringement.
I've so far only found a copy of the decision in French, I'd be curious to see the English version thereof.
fwiw, Copiepresse, which won this ruling, has a site here
Post a Comment