Belgium court rules Google infringed copyright with newspaper links News
Belgium court rules Google infringed copyright with newspaper links

[JURIST] The Brussels Court of First Instance ruled Tuesday that Google [corporate website; JURIST news archive] violated copyright law by linking to Belgian newspapers without receiving permission to do so. The Internet company was ordered to pay $32,500 (25,000 euros) per day until all of the content is removed, retroactive to 139 days ago when Google was first asked to take the headlines, photos, text fragments, and links down from all Google sites, including its news service. The company said it has already cleared its website of such content and plans to appeal the ruling, arguing that its use of headlines with links to the original Belgian news websites is legal.

Google has also been sued by Copiepresse, which represents 17 German and French language newspapers, for copyright infringement. The media outlets are pushing to have Internet engines like Google pay for links to the European news and many of the newspapers are in negotiations with Google to reach such agreements. Two of the five Copiepresse groups that sued have already settled with Google. Bloomberg has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UN General Assembly approves Palestine partition plan

The UN General Assembly approved UN Resolution Resolution 181 (II) on November 29, 1947, recommending that the British Mandate for Palestine be split into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an international zone for Jerusalem. The vote in the assembly was 33 for to 13 against, with 10 abstentions. The resolution sparked a war between Palestinian Arabs and Jews in 1947 and a wider war after Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded the new State of Israel in 1948. Read Resolution 181 (II).

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