The agreement was made with the Belgian copyright groups Sofam, representing about 3,700 photographers, and Scam, on behalf of journalists. In September, Google lost a copyright suit initially filed by Copiepresse, a group representing French- and German-language newspapers in Belgium. That case is being reheard, but the company has removed links to 17 papers from its Google News page.
Google lost another one. This is not such a big surprise though. Google is really big in the US; they are really big around the world. But some countries take pride in their own people more than other countries which would lead Google to not come out ahead in some cases.
A Brussels court heard arguments yesterday from groups that remain in the lawsuit. Copiepresse sued in February, and a court ruling Sept. 5 forced Google to remove Google News links to the newspapers or face a fine of a million euros daily. Google complied on Sept. 18.
The funny thing is for these newspapers is what Google is just providing them free traffic. They are providing them free traffic which turns into advertising profits which in turn just generates them more revenue. I don’t understand why anyone would want to sue Google over giving them free traffic.
