Copiepresse represents Belgian newspapers and took the Google
case because it believed that the Google News service breached the
newspapers' copyright. Google argued that it does not break the law
because it uses only snippets of text.
A Belgian case ruled in favour of Copiepresse and Google took
down all reference to the newspapers represented by the body both
in Google News and in its search engine.
This week it emerged that Copiepresse has started discussions
with Microsoft's MSN over the same issue. Boribon, Copiepresse's
Secretary General, told weekly technology podcast OUT-LAW Radio
that Yahoo! was also on the body's list.
"Yes," she said, when asked would she take action against
Yahoo!, adding that it would have to wait until her organisation
had time. "We are a very small team and I only have 24 hours in a
day so I do my best."
"The law is the law. We are producing protected works and the
law in Europe says clearly that to re-use that content you have to
ask for permission," said Boribon. "We want every search engine,
aggregator or re-user of our content to respect it and to ask for
agreement and to pay a fair price."
The Google case will return to court in November, but Boribon
said that she is finding Microsoft eaier to deal with, and that it
has been keen to talk from the outset. "MSN has a long tradition of
attention to copyright for their computer programs so they know
what copyright is, maybe more than Google," she said.
Boribon would like a revenue share from all news services that
use her members' material, but says she is open to offers on
exactly how that would work. "What we ask for one we ask for the
other one – the same arguments, the same measures, they have done
the same infringements, taking content without authorisation, so we
ask the same: withdraw the content and come to the table to
negotiate a fair deal."
She said that her actions had attracted additional support from
copyright groups representing authors, photographers and scientific
authors.
Copiepresse hopes, said Boribon, that its actions against Google
will set a precedent that will mean that subsequent cases can be
settled more easily. "We think the point is to have a clear
situation with the main one and the others will follow," she
said.
