Belgian court says "non" to Google News

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 14 February 2007 05:51

Your IT - Home IT

Why would someone want to stop search engines such as Google from linking to their site when others go to great lengths to obtain prominence in the search giant's listings? You'll have to ask a group of Belgian newspapers for the answer.

A Belgian court has found in favour of Copiepresse (representing 17 newspapers), which claimed Google was in breach of copyright by displaying headlines and links to its members' news stories without their permission.

Google and other search engines are a major source of hits for most web sites. So what are the Belgian publishers complaining about?

They appear to be taking an absolutist position on copyright, claiming (seemingly with the court's support) that mainland European law does not have a 'fair use' provision that allows the republishing of headlines without permission.

Secondly, the case seems to be a replay of the so-called 'deep linking' debate. Some organisations claim they have the right to prevent external links to specific pages of their sites, limiting them instead to 'approved' pages, typically the home page.

The reason is often a question of advertising revenue: a direct link will only expose the reader to ads on the destination page, whereas following links to and through the home page will deliver two or three times as many advertising impressions.

The design of web protocols allows any document to link to any other, so it's not a stretch to assume that anyone publishing on the web wants to be linked unless they use technical measures to discourage it.