It's not a great news week for Google, which has not only been accused of encouraging piracy but now faces the latest twist in its fight with Belgian news publishers.
A court in Belgium this morning ruled that Google News must stop reproducing articles, because they can be read even when the articles have disappeared behind a paywall. Here's what Reuters has to say:
The case was brought by Copiepresse, which manages copyrights for Belgium's French- and German-language newspapers and has also demanded that the French division of Internet portal Yahoo (YHOO.O: Quote, Profile, Research) stop displaying Belgian press reports.
Copiepresse argues that versions of news articles stored on Google can be seen on its service even after the articles are no longer freely accessible on a newspaper's Website.
Personally, I think the Belgian newspapers are foolish and short-sighted for pursuing this - and I can't understand why they've gone through the courts (surely a robots.txt file would suffice, if they want Google to stop indexing their paywalled content).
I hate paywalls, and I hate news executives who don't realise the internet has changed their game. It's as if they'd been banning their papers from being sold on certain newsstands because people can read the headlines from the street. In cases like this, the only long-term victims are likely to be the newspapers themselves.
