The Court of Appeal accused the Belgian Google News service in the copyright infringement of some newspapers. The court found that placement of the article in the service without the prior consent of the editors was illegal.
As a result of court ordered the company to remove all articles and photos taken from the French and German editions, whose rights are protected group Copiepresse. In addition, Google shall pay them a fine of 25.000 euros.
The court's decision is the final verdict in a series of processes that took place in 2006, when the advocacy group Copiepresse went to court on behalf of a number of Belgian publications. According to representatives of media, the transfer of material, even quoting the source led to the loss of a significant number of visitors. In 2007, Google has removed from service all of the content of newspapers, but in future articles from them continued to appear in Google News.
According to Google spokesman in the Netherlands, Mark Jansen, the company is currently considering the court's decision, however, firmly convinced that «Google News operates in full compliance with all applicable laws of copyright protection."
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