We read:
"A Belgian court has ruled that Google may not reproduce extracts from a variety of Belgian newspapers, endangering one of the web search leader's most popular services if other courts follow suit.
The case was brought by Copiepresse, which manages copyrights for Belgium's French- and German-language newspapers and has also demanded that the French division of internet portal Yahoo stop displaying Belgian press reports....
The Belgian court today upheld an existing injunction, although reduced the penalty that Google would face if it chose to publish material from a variety of Belgian French- and German-language newspapers."
Source
Google muzzles its own services enough without lawsuits doing it as well. For better or for worse, Google is a major conduit for ideas and information and anything that restricts the flow is bad for us all.
The whole case is pretty weird, though. Lots of people make great efforts to get more prominence in Google search results. Getting yourself excluded from Google looks like foot-shooting to me. I think I smell a whiff of anti-Americanism in it. Lots of French-speaking Belgians are some of the craziest Leftists around.
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