Slashdot Mirror
Belgian Newspapers Delisted On Google
D H NG writes "After being ordered by the Belgian courts to 'remove from its Google.be and Google.com sites, and in particular, cached links visible on Google Web and the Google News service, all articles, photographs and graphics of daily newspapers published in French and German by Belgian publishers,' Google had removed all traces of the newspapers in question from all its search services. The newspapers, however, are crying foul, and alleged that it was done in retaliation for being sued for copyright violations."
So just because Google lost on the copyright issue, it gets to use it's considerable market power to punish the winners by not including any search results? IANAL, but doesn't that smack of anti-competitive behavior? If this was a US firm they pulled that with, I'm sure the DOJ would be very interested.
So, for example, you sue your neighbor for running over your dog, you win, and then your neighbor also decides to run over your cat. Welcome to unintended consequences? Two wrongs (by the same perpetrator) make a right? What kind of ethics are those? I think we expect more than the Law of the Jungle when it comes to business law.
Oh, and screw all of the hard working journalists who produced the content that Google was making available for free with no permission? Does "Thou shalt not steal" mean nothing anymore?