The Brussels court ruled that Google had violated copyright laws by publishing links to articles from Belgian newspapers without permission. The court fined Google 25,000 euros, or $32,600, for each day it displayed links to the Belgian newspapers' content. Google maintains that it is innocent and said it plans to appeal.

The Belgian copyright lawsuit is not the first time Google has dealt with concerns over its news aggregation practices. The company locked horns with the Associated Press last year over the same issue. The AP wasn't comfortable with Google's practice of aggregating and displaying its content on its Web site without paying the news wire's fees. Google finally agreed to license the content, without admitting it had crossed any copyright lines.

Google is still battling Paris-based news agency Agence-France Press. The AFP filed a suit against the company that is similar to Copiepresse's argument. The AFP is seeking $17.5 million in damages. If Google loses that suit, it could put other search engines that engage in similar practices in the crosshairs.

Back to Belgium

For now, legal analysts are weighing the potential impact of the Copiepresse decision. But it might be some time before the story line becomes clear because Google plans to appeal.

According to Michael R. Graham, intellectual property attorney and partner with Marshall Gerstein & Borun LLP, continental European law is not bound by precedent of a lower court ruling, or even some higher court rulings, as it would be under U.S. law.

"More importantly, even if Copiepresse is able to have this lower court decision affirmed on appeal, it will at best be a pyrrhic victory -- and in fact could be the kiss of death for its members," Graham said.

The result of forcing search engines to limit the scope or amount of text provided in searches without prior permission, according Graham, could ultimately lead to fewer people accessing available content on the Internet.

If Google, for example, does not aggregate news from publications that either won't grant permission or that demand payment for permission, the news consumers' ability to get information quickly could be hindered.

Perceiving the Value

However, Graham said he doesn't believe a majority of publications will follow Copiepresse's lead. He predicted there will be a sufficient number of publications that recognize that Google's blurb-and-link format leads to increased traffic to their Web sites and will grant consent without payment.

"As personal news sources become increasingly focused on or limited to online services, the unlinked publications and resources may well find themselves out of publication," Graham noted.

New models for protecting copyrighted material and creating an income stream to support these materials need to be developed by organizations such as Copiepresse, Graham added. Otherwise, he said, "just as the record production companies are coming to recognize, news publishers' very existence may be threatened by the success of digital access to and distribution of the content upon which they rely."