After Google, Belgian Newspaper Chases Yahoo!

The Age reported last week that after Google and Microsoft, Belgium's French-speaking newspapers are seeking compensation from Yahoo! over publication of articles from Belgian newspapers on its search engine without any permission.

The Age states, “Copiepresse accuses Yahoo! of violating copyright laws by giving Internet users access to archived newspaper articles which the papers themselves would now charge people to read. While it makes no threats in its letter, Copiepresse could take legal action if it is not satisfied with Yahoo's response.”

In September Copiepresse took Google News to court in Belgium over its inclusion of Belgian news sources without explicit authorization. Read the complete news Google Vs Belgian Court Ruling.

However, Yahoo! rejected Copiepresse's claims regarding the unauthorized violation of copyright laws. Yahoo! released a statement where they quoted, “We can confirm that Copiepresse has contacted us regarding the display of archived results on our Web search service and we will respond in an appropriate manner.” 
    
Well! Yahoo! has two options. It can either just get rid of the content with any other obligations. Or it can go the Google way. Just as a reminder, Google lost the law suit against Copiepresse and had to “Remove French and German-language content from the publishers from Google Belgium's web sites or pay a fine of €1 million per day. Publish the ruling on Google Belgium and Google News Belgium or pay a fine of €500,000 per day.”
 

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