A Belgian court ruled on Tuesday that Google may not publish in Google News Belgium copyrighted articles from Belgian newspapers managed by Copiepresse, which brought the suit. Copiepresse is also going after Yahoo’s site in France to demand it stop showing its content as well. Google was ordered to stop showing the articles in September 2006, under threat of a potential 1 million euro per day fine, but appealed the decision, which led to this re-hearing. In November, Google settled with two publishing groups that had been in on the original lawsuit.

The post also points out that many publishers are happy to be included in Google News: “Today’s ruling does not affect the current content of Google News, because the websites represented by Copiepresse have already been removed from Google News. In fact, hundreds of news publishers in Belgium and around the world are delighted to be included in Google News because it helps more people find their websites and read their articles. That’s why Google receives far more requests for inclusion than requests for removal.”

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