Google vs. Belgium

O.K., so Google lost the copyright case with the Belgian newspapers. The question now being asked at Business Week and The Next Net is who is the real loser. I called that one way back in September: Newspaper Associations: Trying To Swim Against The Tide? That post was picked up by Tailrank, Web 2.0 Television, and via comments by the Press Gazette in the U.K.

This is an easy one: Belgian newspapers lose. Obscurity isn’t a great way to sell brands or newspapers in the Internet Age.

I do love the last words in The Next Net post:

“As a result, traffic to their Websites will go down, and so will their online revenues.  That’s what happens when you let the lawyers run your business.”