Belgian copyright ruling against Google news links
Google has been ordered to change its news service in Belgium after the Courts found that it infringed the copyright of other news producers.
The service reproduced headlines, thumbnail images and the first line or two of a story from the source publication, to provide a link to the full story on that source's site. Google argued, unsuccessfully, that this actually added value to the other news sites, as it drove traffic to them, but the Belgian publications that opposed the practice felt they did not need Google's help.
The Court agreed that the reproduction could amount to copyright infringement, and ordered Google to cease the practice without the publications' consent, on pain of a €1million daily fine.
It is possible that a similar decision could be reached in the UK. Businesses must be very careful in judging how to link to other sites without giving rise to infringement claims.
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