Belgian newspapers want Google to pay for copyright violation

A group of Belgian newspapers are seeking 49.2 million euros ($76.6 million) from Google Inc. for a copyright lawsuit they won against the search engine company in 2006.

The two sides have been in negotiations since the 2006 decision, but the publishing group, Copiepresse, went public with its demand for damages late Tuesday, signalling that the talks have broken down. The group first filed its lawsuit in April 2006.

"We entered in negotiations with Google to reach an agreement, but they have now failed," Margaret Boribon, secretary general at Copiepresse, told Computerworld magazine. The group is still open to a settlement but in the meantime is moving on, she said.

"All we want is to reach a fair agreement with Goggle, but if that fails, we will go on with every possible procedure."

In September 2006, the Court of First Instance in Brussels sided with the newspapers and ordered Google to remove their content from Google News and its main search engines. Google did, and the court reaffirmed its decision in February 2007, but Google appealed.

Google then added links to the Belgian newspapers' own websites in its search results in May 2007 instead of posting the newspapers' content on its own news sites as it did in the past whichwas one of the conditions Copiepresse had been seeking as part of its negotiations.

Google maintains that it is not breaking copyright, which is why it has decided to fight the Belgian court's decision.

"This is why we are appealing the February 2007 ruling," a spokeswoman told Computerworld. "We consider that this new claim for past damages is groundless, and we intend to vigorously challenge it."

Copiepressenow wants a court hearing on Sept. 18 to decide whether the search engine company infringed on its newspapers' copyright and whether its claim against Google can go ahead. Copiepresse wants the court to review Google's server logs going back to 2001 to see how many readers accessed its newspapers' articles.