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DNA09: Copiepresse would sue again if Google introduced advertising to Belgian news channel

Posted: 04/03/09 By: Judith Townend

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The secretary-general of Belgian newspaper copyright group, Copiepresse, said that if advertising on Google News was introduced in Belgium, as is happening in the US, the group would fight another case.

Margaret Boribon, who was speaking at the Digital News Affairs (DNA) 2009 conference, defended Copiepresse's decision to have Belgian news content removed from Google.

Copiepresse is seeking up to €49 million in damages from Google for Belgian newspapers having their content stored and reproduced without permission by the global search engine.

If Google News introduces advertising in Belgium, Copiepresse would not shy away from further legal action, she said.

"If they try, they will be sued immediately," she told Journalism.co.uk.

"Newspaper sites are getting better and better. It's not [just] a problem of money, it's a problem of democratic values," Boribon argued in a panel discussing the problems surrounding aggregation.

"Where is the pluralism?" she said, adding that the way Google News search results are selected by a unseen algorithm is undemocratic.

Another concern for Boribon is that only 10 per cent of people click on the articles, once results are found through Google News.

Boribon argued that unpaid replication of content was unfair for newspapers, even if the newspapers do not charge for online content in the first place.

Speaking to Journalism.co.uk, she said that Copiepresse's action was influencing media in countries facing similar issues.

In Denmark, for example, she said, newspapers had threatened to boycott Google and take court action if a Danish-language version of Google News was introduced.

"The Danish newspapers wrote [to Google] and said 'what has happened in Brussels will happen here, so don't start!'," explained Boribon.

Copiepresse is currently awaiting the next stage of the Google case, in which the final sum of any damages will be finalised.

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