A Belgian newspaper has won a court order telling Google to stop reproducing their content through the Google Website:”We are asking for Google to pay and seek our authorisation to use our content … Google sells advertising and makes money on our content,” Boribon told Reuters, confirming reports in Belgian media.”
As so many are scrambling to get Google to find content, most have given up on rights that would have been seen as unimaginable not too long ago. Just another indicator of the rapidly changing world of publishing.
Techdirt sees the Belgian paper’s request as antiquated:
“The issue of the legality of “deep linking” has gone on for many years — and while we had hoped that, by now, people would realize why there should be nothing wrong with linking to any other page on the internet, it seems that’s not the case.”
“In the meantime, though, you have to wonder if all the Belgian publications that are now facing removal from Google News and Google cache are all that happy that one of their best lead generators will now be banned.”
“One of these days, perhaps, both courts and publishers will learn that having someone link to you is a good thing, especially when it’s a site that people go to in order to look for exactly the type of content you produce.”