The world’s most used search engine Google loses a copyright case against Belgian newspapers that had demanded it to remove headlines and links to new stories without their permission. The company responded immediately by saying they will appeal the case claiming that it was completely legal. Google also said that this case will be a one time case that will not be repeated elsewhere. The Brussels Court of First Instance ruled that California-based Google could not call on exemptions, such as claiming "fair use" because it says it reviews press articles when it displays headlines, a few lines of text, photos and links to the original page. In the U.S., Internet search engines have been able to call on "fair use" to defend the republication of text excerpts and a similar system exists in British law. In the future, the court said it would be up to copyright owners to get in touch with Google to complain if the site was posting content that belonged to them. Google would then have 24 hours to withdraw the content or face a daily fine of €1,000 (US$1,295).
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