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Google News Removes Belgian Newspaper

CaVi writes "Following a judicial action (link in French) by the 'French-speaking Belgian Association of the press,' Google.be has removed all the French-speaking press sites from its index, as can be seen by doing a search. The court order to Google is posted at Chilling Effects. In summary, the editors want a cut of the profit that Google News makes using their information. No such deal exists for the moment. Google has been ordered to remove all references, or pay one million Euros per day if it doesn't comply. Net effect: they removed all link to the sites, from Google News, but also from Google's search. Will Google become irrelevant in Belgian, and be replaced by MSN? Or will the newspapers, which gain from commercials, and thus net traffic, change their position when they'll see the drop in traffic that it is causing?" There's also a link to a Dutch news article on the subject; one of the key issues was evidently that some of what Google was carrying was no longer available on the newspaper's website itself, so rather then linking to the newspaper, Google was displaying it on their own.

31 of 381 comments (clear)

  1. Let's play BREAK THE INTERNET! by Chas · · Score: 2, Funny

    No linking. Gotta love it. Undermind the damn net! Undermine I say!

    --


    Chas - The one, the only.
    THANK GOD!!!
    1. Re:Let's play BREAK THE INTERNET! by Midnight+Thunder · · Score: 3, Funny

      I always warn people I know who are vacationing in Europe -- avoid Belgium. Who knows what else they will try to persecute you for there.

      Belgium is like Washington DC: too many bureaucrats for their own good.

      --
      Jumpstart the tartan drive.
    2. Re:Let's play BREAK THE INTERNET! by Grishnakh · · Score: 3, Funny

      How does an American tourist fight a Belgian company telling them to remove "their" photos? Simple: take a photo of your hand showing the middle finger raised, and send it back to the Belgian company.

      Belgian laws don't affect us here in the US.

  2. Ah, Belgium by C4st13v4n14 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Someone "out there" is taking the piss, right? I once visited Belgium for three weeks and it became apparent quite quickly that there wasn't anything news-worthy going on. All they seem to have is really, really excellent beer.

    1. Re:Ah, Belgium by ObsessiveMathsFreak · · Score: 3, Funny
      I once visited Belgium for three weeks and it became apparent quite quickly that there wasn't anything news-worthy going on.
      You didn't happen to spot the European Union Parliament Buildings did you? ....oh wait.
      --
      May the Maths Be with you!
    2. Re:Ah, Belgium by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      You forgot waffles.

      Nathan

    3. Re:Ah, Belgium by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 4, Funny

      I don't know... looking on google, I don't find anything happening in Belgium.

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
    4. Re:Ah, Belgium by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 2, Funny

      In compliance with international standards for humor (sec 4242, paragraph D) this is a notification that the following statement is a joke:

      > I don't know... looking on google, I don't find anything happening in Belgium.

      In the event that you did not get the immediately preceding joke, you should consult the works of Urbain Servranckx and immediately consume at least two stiff drinks.

      cc: EU dept of humor notifications.

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
    5. Re:Ah, Belgium by tarscher · · Score: 5, Funny

      We also have very good chocolate, waffles and child molesters.

    6. Re:Ah, Belgium by neiljt · · Score: 2, Funny

      And rain. Lots of rain.

    7. Re:Ah, Belgium by MCraigW · · Score: 2, Funny

      Belgium certainly produces excellent chocolates. They also produce fine lace. On the list so far: Beer, chocolates, waffles, pedophiles, lace... oh, and lets not forget Brussels sprouts, although there, I think they just call them sprouts. And weren't fries invented there? Fries with mayonnaise.... mmmmmm...

  3. Block IPs? by DzugZug · · Score: 5, Funny

    Google should block the Newspaper's IP addresses so that their reporters cannot use Google in their research.

    1. Re:Block IPs? by Qzukk · · Score: 2, Funny

      they failed to avail themselves of the quick, easy, and cheap solution.

      Why should they be forced to do anything? Google should use its awesome psychic powahs to automatically determine that when they put out information for the whole world to read, they don't actually want the whole world to read it. Or remember that it ever existed once it's gone.

      --
      If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
  4. French? by evil+agent · · Score: 5, Funny

    Stupid Flanders...

    --
    End transmission.
  5. Freedom waffles? by halivar · · Score: 1, Funny

    Would those have strawberries, whipped cream, and blueberries?

    I want some.

  6. it's not this bad over here by tehwebguy · · Score: 2, Funny

    at least i live in the states, where you can't just sue companies because you are too dense to learn the rules (such as robots.txt)

    oh wait..

    --
    -- lol pwned
  7. Re:How important is French to the Belgians? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
    I sometimes wonder about the average /.er's grasp on geography AND foreign languages.


    Hey man, this is America! Love it or LEAVE it!!!

    Damn foreigners.

    ;-)

  8. Re:Don't worry its Belgium by AxminsterLeuven · · Score: 3, Funny
    As the old challenge goes, name 10 famous Belgians.

    Here goes (in random order):

    1) Dirk Frimout, 1st Belgian astronaut
    2) Adolphe Sax, inventor of the saxophone
    3) Justine Henin-Hardenne, tennis player, current no. 2 in the WTA Tour
    4) Kim Clijsters, currently 4th ranked female tennis player in the world
    5) Tom Boonen, 2005 world cycling champion
    6) Paul Van Ostaijnen, influential Modernist poet
    7) Doctor Evil, evil doctor
    8) The Smurfs (all of them)
    9) Tintin, reporter (French-speaking, so all of his writing is now probably off Google)
    10) Mark Dutroux, psychopath (Famous? Yes. Nice guy? No.)
  9. Re:Don't worry its Belgium by kamapuaa · · Score: 5, Funny

    No, you're talking about the wrong kind of famous person. I think the grandparent post meant the kind of famous people that most people have heard of.

    --
    Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
  10. Re:Lets sue by asylumx · · Score: 2, Funny
    Lets start a class action suite.
    I prefer the honeymoon suite.
  11. Re:How important is French to the Belgians? by katsiris · · Score: 2, Funny

    'Dutch'?!?! Don't the Dutch speak Hollondaise?

  12. Re:Don't worry its Belgium by thebdj · · Score: 2, Funny

    Same deal with Descartes (and I'm talking about the cartographer). He was definatly Belgian, you can even visit the house he was born here.

    He is so famous in fact, everyone who read that first thought of Rene Descartes, who is arguably much more famous and very much not from Belgium.

    --
    "Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb."
  13. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 3, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  14. Re:How important is French to the Belgians? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny
    Plus to add to the fun, there are 70,000 German-speakers in the east of the country.
    But every forty years or so the number seems to suddenly increase temporarily.

    But then Belgium's really dull and nothing happens here, right? I know otherwise, because I live here.
    I do too, and I know that it is true.
  15. What is this "Belgium"? by vidarh · · Score: 2, Funny

    Everone knows that Belgium doesn't exist...

  16. Re:How important is French to the Belgians? by Andrewkov · · Score: 4, Funny

    There's only two things I hate in this world. People who are intolerant of other people's cultures ... and the Dutch.

  17. Re:How important is French to the Belgians? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    There's no such thing as a language called 'Belgian.'
    They speak Dutch (Flemish), French, and German.
    I sometimes wonder about the average /.er's grasp on geography AND foreign languages.
    I don't care what they call their language as long as they stay in South America where they belong.

  18. And don't forget,,,, by wbean · · Score: 2, Funny

    Hercule Poirot

  19. Re:How important is French to the Belgians? by ozmanjusri · · Score: 2, Funny
    There are some pretty harsh rivalries between the currently-financially-stable Flanders and the recession-hit Wallonia

    Damn Flanders! They've been rubbing it in our noses since we got here! Their families are better than our families, their beer comes from farther away than our beer, they like each other, their wives butts are higher than our wives butts! They make me sick!

    --
    "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
  20. Re:Can we get some editing here please? by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 4, Funny
    unless you doubt the existence of Belgium (and let's not get in to that here).


    Hmm. Another conspiracy by the evil cartographers? Did you know that more than 99% of all maps are made by cartographers? Definitely some sort of conspiracy going on here.
  21. Re:What about robots.txt? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm literally sick of all this people who don't like being indexed.

    You should literally consult a physician.

    Or a dictionary.