Swiss publishers consider a lawsuit against Google News

Swiss newspaper publishers are considering a lawsuit against Google for its news aggregator Google News, according to a story today in Persönlich (a media trade mag - the article is in German). "We believe that Google infringes on our copyright; this is unfair competition", said a member of the board of the Swiss Press Association -- the national publisher's organization.

Media organizations in other countries have already taken similar steps, most recently in Belgium, where a settlement with Google was reached last June.

Google News automatically organizes news headlines from multiple sources, directly linking them to the original stories. The service doesn't therefore copy nor republish the content of the articles: it's essentially a constantly-updated page of links. It exists in two versions for Switzerland, one in German, the other in French.

The existence of Google News owes much (if not all), in Switzerland and all around the world, to the incapacity of news media companies to figure out ways to work together in online content distribution. Apparently, according to the same Persönlich story, seven Swiss-German publishers are now working on a plan for a competitor to Google News in the Swiss market -- a news aggregator. They should have done so ten years ago; instead, they're now "in the project phase".

Comments

[Vittoz Jérôme]

Décidément l'AFP et l'ATS suivent des voies diamétralement opposées (lire cet article: http://www.lesechos.fr/info/hightec/300198280.htm). Et moi qui pensais que l'ATS allait également passer un accord avec Google. Apparemment, l'AFP considère le moteur de recherche comme un opportunité et non une menace. Sans le savoir, l'ATS va favoriser ainsi les aggrégateurs comme Bluewin ou Romandie.com plutôt que les véritables créateurs de contenus originaux, les journaux ou magazine en ligne en particulier. A suivre...