Belgian Publishers Trying To Milk Google Ban For All It's Worth

from the oh,-come-on... dept

Wed, Oct 4th 2006 12:14pm — Mike Masnick

The situation with Google in Belgium continues to get more and more surreal. Following the original confused order for Google to stop linking to French and German-language news publications on its Belgian site, Google complied, but appealed. They also appealed the idea that they should have to reprint the entire court order ("without commentary") on the front of both Google Belgium and Google News Belgium. However, when the court rejected that appeal and started threatening fines, Google put the text on the site, in tiny, unformatted text at the bottom of each page. Now, wouldn't you know it, the publishers are whining that it was too small and too hidden on the news site. Of course, the court never said they had to make it prominent or put it at the top of the page. In the meantime, though, it seems like others are looking to jump on the bandwagon as well. The latest is that Belgian press photographers are joining the lawsuit against Google, just for the hell of it. It's not entirely clear what their complaint is, as the article continues to show that many people involved in the case don't seem to actually understand what's going on. The article (presumably based on info from the press photographers) continues to say that Google caches the stories on its Google News site, when that's simply not true. The article also says that Google has claimed removing these sites from the cache is "technically impossible," which isn't true (it both isn't technically impossible and Google never said that removing these sites was technically impossible). Either way, it's not at all clear what the photographers are complaining about. In some cases, Google does use thumbnails, but that is pretty clear fair use (then again, we thought what Google News was doing was fair use too).

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34 Comments

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s, 4 Oct 2006 @ 12:21pm

get off the internet
belgium just should get off the internet and focus on making good beer at a cheaper price.
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- AMP, 4 Oct 2006 @ 12:27pm
  
  Re: get off the internet
  and waffles....
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James, 4 Oct 2006 @ 12:30pm

Perhaps...
... we could offer them some cheese to go with their WHINE ?
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Rabid Wolverine, 4 Oct 2006 @ 12:51pm

Begium Google...
They speak french, what can I say?

Their still mad that English won out as the world-wide language of choice.

That's why the french came up with the metric system, it's a french plot to undermine the english speaking world...
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- M, 4 Oct 2006 @ 1:19pm
  
  Re: Begium Google...
  now that English has won the battle, let's try and learn it! It's "they're" not 'their", DUH!
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- Anonymous Coward, 4 Oct 2006 @ 1:34pm
  
  Re: Begium Google...
  most of the world uses the metric system...the US is alone in not using it...
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  - Currywurry, 8 Oct 2006 @ 3:06am
    
    Re: Re: Begium Google...
    With reference to the guy who said the US is alone in not using the metric system, you're wrong - Britain unnofficially uses the Imperial system. We weigh ourselves in stones, drive in miles to the gallon, use inches.
    
    We're the most backwards country in Europe, and i love it.
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- Lazy Guy, 4 Oct 2006 @ 2:26pm
  
  Re: Begium Google...
  Hey, don't knock the Metric System. It is so much easier to use...plus everything in the US (except for road signs) typically have both Metric and customary units on them already.
  
  Anyway, Google is way ahead of the belgian times. In five to ten years, they're going to figure out how freakin' dumb they are.
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Lay Person, 4 Oct 2006 @ 12:56pm

It's quite clear...
It's quite clear that the Belgian authority really ought to just stick with Belgian waffles. Not too technical and kinda tough to rip off since everyone knows what Belgium is known for.
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Neal, 4 Oct 2006 @ 12:58pm

Drop 'em
Google should just drop Belgium period. Put a big sign on the page blaming these groups and cease doing business there. Sure, others would pick up the slack, but then these morons would sue them too and those engones would follow suit. Soon Belgium would be off the Internet.
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- drkkgt, 4 Oct 2006 @ 1:29pm
  
  Re: Drop 'em
  Google should just BUY belgium and make it a great big datawharehouse in a waffle shaped building.
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D.Head, 4 Oct 2006 @ 1:09pm

You are, your own,, worst enemy.Hey! Lets make everything suck.
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PhysicsGuy, 4 Oct 2006 @ 1:17pm

Re: Begium Google...
that and the metric system is just more logical...
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Dogfolife69, 4 Oct 2006 @ 1:19pm

just drop google.be if they dont like your help
I join google on this one.... Google should not post the court order and just drop the Google.be page... Google is provide these newspapers with more user and thus more review that could be generated from their reader, by limiting how google shows the news from their site, they restrict the number of people that might actually visit the site... face it, it google news summarizes the acticles in a more interesting way that it was written, more people would want to see the fully article... i think google should flex their power and show the belgian newspapers that messing with google over something so trivial will only hurt them in the long run.
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Peter Forret, 4 Oct 2006 @ 1:22pm

We're not all that stupid
For your information, Belgium is mostly Flemish speaking, with a French speaking and a tiny German speaking minority.
Incidently it is the French press that started this ridiculous lawsuit against Google, and we're not too proud about them either. The whole thing is indeed a blatant show of ignorance about how the web -and Google- works, both on the pubisher's and the judge's side.
Drop the publishers' sites from the Google index? I agree completely! Drop Belgium "off the Internet"? That's a bit harsh...
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- Adam, 4 Oct 2006 @ 1:33pm
  
  Re: We're not all that stupid
  lol... yeah, we wouldnt want to judge the people of belgium based on the idiotic policies of their government. Wouldnt that suck? if say, americans abroad were all judged by the idiotic policies of their government!?
  
  damn, wouldnt that suck?!
  
  oh... wait...
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Grammar Police, 4 Oct 2006 @ 1:47pm

Editors take note
FYI, the headline should not have an apostrophe in 'its' - it is supposed to indicate possesion in this sentence.
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- Lay Person, 4 Oct 2006 @ 2:23pm
  
  Re: Editors take note
  #15...
  
  Huh?...
  
  Sorry folks, I just can't let this one go.
  
  Back to grammar School with you #15.
  
  "Belgian Publishers Trying To Milk Google Ban For All It's Worth"
  
  See, the "Publishers" are possessing the "Ban" for all "It is Worth"
  
  I am done. Thank you.
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Zach Calvert, 4 Oct 2006 @ 1:48pm

Google out to do just what the courts want it to do. Post the court order on the web page, remove the ability to perform searches, and just tell readers they are pulling out of Belgium and are dissapointed to do so. Then have a list of companies/people responsible for Google to make such a decision.

It would be a funny backlash when students/teachers/intelligent people begin to knock down the doors of these companies/people.
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Oct 2006 @ 1:48pm

Important insight
What language do they speak in Belgium?
Belch.
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- Bryan, 4 Oct 2006 @ 2:15pm
  
  Re: Important insight
  Dutch
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PhysicsGuy, 4 Oct 2006 @ 1:52pm

Re: Editors take note
what's wrong with reading the headline as: "...Trying To Milk Google Ban For All It Is Worth" ? i'm not trying to say you're wrong, i'm just curious...
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- iHeartPirates, 4 Oct 2006 @ 2:04pm
  
  Re: Re: Editors take note
  Well, it could actually be written either way. It really depends on the author's intentions. If he/she wanted it to read "it is worth", then yeah...apostrophe to show a contraction. If he/she wanted it to read as "all of the ban's worth"...then no apostrophe is needed in "its", as this is how it is used to show possession.
  
  Take it from a grammar nerd.
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Solo, 4 Oct 2006 @ 2:35pm

Woohoo my country is popular!
Being Belgian (but living in the land of Freedom, the United States of America) I can't be more pleased than to see my proud country make the news.

Wait? They just made an ass out of themselves.

I appreciate the knowledge and breadth of culture displayed in the other comments though. Good call about the waffles!

More seriously, I thought this kind of crap was tried by the French as well but went nowhere. In any case, it's showing alot of ignorance both from the publishers and the judge. The rest of the world want only one thing: getting picked up by google, being indexed, showing up in the result. This is sure way to attract alot of traffic.

This is especially true for the news media. When I use google news, I'm often sent to australian, south african, brazilian (but not belgian :) news sites.

Somebody let them know that Google actually increases traffic to their site.

Not all Belgian people are idiots. I can't say anything about the ones who make the news...
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homer, 4 Oct 2006 @ 3:20pm

order allow,deny
deny from .be
allow from all
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Monarch, 4 Oct 2006 @ 3:59pm

Waffles? Waffles?
The first thing I think of when I think of Belgium is their excelent imported Chocolates!!!
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Eran, 4 Oct 2006 @ 4:16pm

Ban Belgium!
Please join us in the call to ban dot be.
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well um, 4 Oct 2006 @ 4:17pm

Belgium
When I think of Belgium I think of.....hmmm I'll get back to you.
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Mike Mixer, 4 Oct 2006 @ 8:31pm

this has gone on long enough
Google should be to the point where they're ready to give these arrogant pencil-necks what they deserve, A google page with a big middle finger and nothing else. Screw Belgium.
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Obvious Man, 5 Oct 2006 @ 9:41am

Fuck the fucking fuckers.

Homer, YOU ROCK.
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Obvious Man, 5 Oct 2006 @ 9:42am

yes! Ban goatse.ex.be forever!
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Anonymous Coward, 5 Oct 2006 @ 1:04pm

the future of history (of the present)
50 or 100 years from now, kids in Belgium are gonna have to do a school report on some crap or other that happened today. The ones that pick relatively obscure happenings are probably going to have to resort to a page caching service such as Google. Now, when Belgian kids can't find any caches of their local news service site, they'll have to use a cached CNN or whatever page. So, 50 years from now, nobody will have a clue these Belgian news sites even existed today - conclusion, they're only biting themselves in the ass...
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Michael Hollis, 5 Oct 2006 @ 1:38pm

I declare war!
Bring on the Freedom Waffles!
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Arnvid, 6 Oct 2006 @ 11:55pm

No Belgium, No WWW
Just as a little reminder to all those Belgiumbashers: do a google search on Robert Cailliau.Maybe you'll learn something.
Oh and google hasn't been saving up on lawsuits themselves. They've been feverishly trying to get some localised versions (in the local dialects) to stop.
And for the sake of it, off course it's a bit strange of this guys not wanting to be linked, but hey, it's a free country over here. And google isn't all that either. I often use other searchmethods, because google just plain sucks say 40% of the time.
Dank u voor uw waandacht.
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