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Google Loses Cache-Copyright Lawsuit in Belgium

Posted by Zonk on from the no-convenience-for-you dept.

acroyear writes "A court in Belgium has found that Google's website caching policies are a violation of that nation's copyright laws. The finding is that Google's cache offers effectively free access to articles that, while free initially, are archived and charged for via subscriptions. Google claims that they only store short extracts, but the court determined that's still a violation. From the court's ruling: 'It would be up to copyright owners to get in touch with Google by e-mail to complain if the site was posting content that belonged to them. Google would then have 24 hours to withdraw the content or face a daily fine of 1,000 euros ($1,295 U.S.).'"

2 of 340 comments (clear)

  1. Har Har by N8F8 · · Score: 4, Informative

    The ruling basically reiterates the current Google policy.

    --
    "God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
    1. Re:Har Har by Seehund · · Score: 4, Informative

      It seems to me that Google should arrange something like noarchive specifically for these news quotes. Then every news site can easily specify what to allow, and they have no reason to sue. Then it doesn't seem there's a reason to sue, as this is already implemented:

      "To prevent all search engines from showing a "Cached" link for your site, place this tag in the <HEAD> section of your page:

      <META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOARCHIVE">

      To allow other search engines to show a "Cached" link, preventing only Google from displaying one, use the following tag:
      <META NAME="GOOGLEBOT" CONTENT="NOARCHIVE">       "
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