Here is a counter point to the post below on Google Adsense. I actually really like Belgium and have been there on holidays on a number o occasions. The food is wonderful, and the beer is some of the best in the world. Cities like Brugge and Antwerp have wonderful architecture. But be careful if you want to use the internet and be especially careful if you are a blogger or a search engine. As Ron Miller wrote, Belgian Newspaper Wins Suit Against Google for Posting Headlines and Links. Most people try to get high on the Google page ranking. The papers in Belgium do not want to appear and sued Google for copyright violations when their articles showed up in Google News. I was very pleased when I was in Google News thanks to the Fast Forwardblog. I also really like its customization features and look for stories in niche areas of interest. Unlike Google search the service only looks at about 4500 sources and most have to apply to be included.
Google at first did not take the suite by the Belgium newspaper group Copiepresse seriously and did not even send anyone to the first court hearing that they lost. Now they lost the appeal but they will appeal it further and feel confident of eventually winning. Business Week has the details in, Google told to remove content from site. It seems that European copyright law is a little tougher than in the US or UK and “fair use” does not apply in the same way.
Here is a post script from Ron that appeared today, Another Day, Another Publisher Sues Google. In this case there may be some wrong doing by someone. Although who is at fault is still unclear.
Excellent post
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Posted by: Jo | February 14, 2007 at 06:46 AM