Google recently settled a suit with at least some of the plaintiffs in a case involving news photographers and journalists in Belgium. This isn’t the first time that newspapers have been angry enough to sue Google, and it probably won’t be the last. But what is the real issue behind all the screaming?
In this article, I’m going to focus mainly on the Belgium case; please keep in mind that Google is being challenged on several legal fronts, on similar grounds. The plaintiffs tend to toss the word “copyright” around a lot, but the law surrounding copyright is somewhat complicated and, despite certain international treaties, not uniform from country to country (and certainly not uniformly enforced!). But I’m getting way ahead of myself here.
Let’s go back to March of this year. That’s when Copiepresse, a rights-management society for the publishers of the French- and German-language daily press, started legal proceedings against Google. Copiepresse objected to Google’s inclusion of Belgian news sources in its Google News without getting explicit permission first. Information about the case, and a summons, was sent to Google. Google didn’t make it to the first hearing (held September 5), at which the court ruled that Google must remove French and German language content from the publishers represented by Copiepresse from its Google Belgium web sites or pay a fine of one million euros a day. Google was also required to post the text of the judgment on its home page.
Google did in fact comply with the ruling – not immediately, but quickly enough that it did not have to pay any fines. It was granted an appeal, however. And somewhere along the line, several other Belgian groups joined in: Sofam, SCAM, SAJ, and Assucopie. Google reached separate settlements with Sofam and SCAM. Sofam is an organization representing Belgian photographers, while the SCAM organization is more geared toward journalists, and covers mostly audio/visual content. As of this writing, the other three groups are moving forward with the suit.
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