Court to Hear Google-Newspaper Fight

[NVMojo]

...imagine if we had to pay for every news story we heard or read ...

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -

A Belgian court on Friday will hear Google Inc.'s defense against local newspaper complaints that it stole content from their Web sites without paying them or asking their permission.

This will be the first time Google argues its case after the Brussels-based Court of First Instance ordered the California-based company to remove Belgian French-language newspaper content from its news index, threatening daily fines of euro1 million ($1.28 million.)

Google failed to appear at an earlier hearing that led up to that ruling and asked for another opportunity to defend itself against the charges made by Copiepresse, a copyright protection group representing the country's French-language editors.

Copiepresse had claimed that Google ignored its original requests to remove content. It said it had a much happier experience with Microsoft Corp.'s MSN Belgian site, entering talks to find a solution.

Google's French- and Dutch-language Belgian news pages are now empty of much local content, largely containing reports from news agencies, news Web sites and foreign newspapers.

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http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/tech/2006/nov/23/112307655.html