Google Settles With France Presse; Domestic Idiot Press May Be A Problem

Google has settled its dispute with the AFP. Last week, Google and the Agence France-Presse announced that the AFP’s suit against Google had been settled with both pleased at the outcome. While details of the agreement were not publicized, they did say that it will allow better use of the AFP’s content on the internet while protecting the copyright (and likely monetary) concerns of the AFP. Google signed a similar deal with the Associated Press eight months ago.
However, all is not well. Billionaire Sam Zell, who last week bought parts of the Tribune newspaper empire, gave a highly controversial speech alleging that Google is profiting by stealing content. While newspapers have long complained about Google News, Zell’s comments were so inflammatory, almost to suggest that all content Google indexes is stolen, and seems like the old man is gearing up for a fight. […]

Original post by Nathan Weinberg