Google and Belgians Come to Copyright Deal

All you fans of news from Belgium will be ecstatic. 'Google Reaches Copyright Deal With Belgians' describes an agreement made with Belgian journalists over Google's news:

Google, the world’s most-used Internet search engine, reached a settlement with Belgian photographers and journalists yesterday in a copyright dispute over how Google’s news service links to newspaper content.

The agreement was made with the Belgian copyright groups Sofam, representing about 3,700 photographers, and Scam, on behalf of journalists. In September, Google lost a copyright suit initially filed by Copiepresse, a group representing French- and German-language newspapers in Belgium. That case is being reheard, but the company has removed links to 17 papers from its Google News page.

Copyright disputes with Google compelled Microsoft to remove Web site links to Belgian newspapers last month and highlighted the global issue of whether traditional copyright protections apply to Internet search services...

Common wisdom used to be that more exposure for news media was good. But then, is an aggregation of news a derivate work? Either that, or it's a violation of copyright in Belgium in another regard, which demonstrates the disparity in copyright law - or - demonstrates how copyright is thought of differently in different parts of the world.

For those of you who have found newfound interest in copyright in the issues of global copyright, this interest is validated by the article. The Internet Governance Forum mentioned it - but it probably didn't get as much attention as it deserved.

From The Internet Governance Forum: A step in the right direction:

...The key issues that emerged were related to safety for youth online, physical access to ICTs, access to access, in other words, the capacity and freedom to make use of physical access, online rights and responsibilities, capacity building and copyright. The last issue was explored throughout the forum, portrayed as the tension between protecting copyright and access to knowledge. Key messages that stood out were the call to make intellectual property rights more flexible to allow innovations to occur, to release scientific research under Creative Commons licences and to disinhibit the “completely new type of free speech” facilitated by the internet...

Warm and fuzzy, but after the WSIS and after the IGF... nothing, really. Some people got together, exchanged some sounds and data (probably even chopping down trees in the process) and... hmm.

Also see:

Inside Views: WIPO At The Internet Governance Forum: DRMs, Access To Information, And Flexibilities

The truth is that because these issues haven't been taken seriously by the public (mainly in the United States), they haven't been taken seriously at all. Meanwhile TRIPs and GATT are bargaining chips for lower prices for the one country which has not taken the IGF or WSIS seriously. The same country that had Hilary Rosen as one of the first people on the ground after the invasion in Iraq to rewrite Iraqi copyright law.