The Copiepresse agency that forced Google to post a court decision against the search advertising company on Google.be has initiated a legal battle with Yahoo over linking to articles.
Caching access to Belgian newspapers has Copiepresse up in arms again. This time they have designated Yahoo France as their bte noire and want them to stop their link practices.
An AP report noted that Copiepresse, a copyright protection group in Belgium, has sent legal warnings to Yahoo France. They want free access to archived articles removed.
The 19 mostly French-language newspapers represented by Copiepresse charge for access to their article archives. Being able to navigate to them via Yahoo France hinders their ability to pocket an access fee for this content.
Yahoo answered the attack by noting they would ‘respond in an appropriate manner’ to the complaint.
Copiepresse first became worthy of attention in September 2006. News of their criticism of and lawsuit against Google was reported at Chilling Effects, a website that serves as a clearinghouse for information on online rights.
Part of the judgment against Google required them to post the court’s decision against them for a five day period. Google did so, at the smallest possible legible font size, on the main page for Google.be.
A Google executive later blogged at length about how Google benefits publishers and respects copyrights. Traffic from Google can benefit a site greatly from an advertising perspective, as higher volumes of visitors should provide much better ad performance.
Google’s disagreement with Copiepresse will hit courtrooms again now that the new year is under way. If Google cannot overcome copyright infringement accusations, it could have a negative impact on the way they gather content online.
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David Utter is a staff writer for murdok covering technology and business.
