iTechNote

The pressure on Google to institute more aggressive copyright protections and policies is growing.

A Brussels court ruled in favor of Copiepresse, a copyright protection group representing 18 newspapers that complained the Google’s “cached” links offered free access to chargeable contents. The court ordered Google to remove any articles, photos or links from its sites.

Google faces a fine of 1,000 euros a day if it does not remove the copyright violated contents within 24 hours once it has been told in the future.

The media companies have been vocal about their dissatisfaction with Google in the past months. These media companies have established sales channels that are more lucrative than putting their contents online. Two incidents stand out.

1. News Corp. has subpoenaed YouTube for the identity of users who uploaded full episodes of Twentieth Century Fox’s prime-time series 24 before they even debuted on television. YouTube gave up the identities, according to a Fox statement last week.

2. Viacom demanded earlier this month that YouTube remove more than 100,000 clips after failing to reach a licensing agreement with YouTube.

Most Internet users do not care much about the legal issues that Google is facing. They are ready to jump on to the next available website offering the same service any time. Google needs to be cautious at handing these legal issues. Personally, I think Google should concentrate more on contents created by amateur publishers.