Belgian court rules against Google over copyright

By Philip Blenkinsop

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A Belgian court ruled on Tuesday that Google may not reproduce extracts from a variety of Belgian newspapers, imperilling 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.

Copiepresse argues that versions of news articles stored on Google can be seen on its service even after the articles are no longer freely accessible on a newspaper's Web site.

Google has faced a similar complaint in the United States from Agence France Presse. The French news agency filed a suit in 2005.

The Belgian court on Tuesday 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.

Following a ruling in September, Google faced a potential 1 million euro (670,000 pounds) per day fine for reproducing articles and was also forced to publish the judgement or pay a further 500,000 euros per day.

The court on Tuesday cut the potential fine to 25,000 euros per day.

Google said it was disappointed with the ruling and that it planned an appeal.