links for 2007-02-14

This is a bit rich coming from the publisher of another freesheet: “TheLondonPaper has been totally irresponsible in increasing its print run by 100,000 when it is clear that many of the existing free papers are being dumped on the streets.”

“A Belgian court ruled on Tuesday that Google may not reproduce extracts from a variety of Belgian newspapers, imperilling one of the web search leader’s most popular services if other courts follow suit.

Kevin Marsh: “Is journalism – including BBC journalism – ‘on the side of’ civil liberties? Or at least, on the side of free speech? A question worth putting after the Sun twice asked last week “whose side are these guys on?””

Rich Skrenta: “The hopes that Dan Gillmor raised for the media industry in his book — which kicked off this whole business — have largely failed.”

Seamus McCauley: MySpace revenues are rising less rapidly than traffic, ie its yields are declining. And it’s not the only place to experience this phenomenon.

“A Belgian court has found the world’s most popular internet search engine in breach of national copyright legislation and levied retrospective fines on Google of up to £2.4 million.”

Rachel Whetstone: “This judgment is clearly disappointing, and we intend to appeal it because we believe that Google.be and Google News are entirely legal and provide great value and critical information to Internet users.”

Tom Griffin on the Downing St petition site: “It seems that ministers are unhappy with this experiment in democracy, not because it has failed, but because it has too successful. A bit like the Freedom of Information Act, in fact.”