Google Israel launched the Beta version of Google News in Hebrew only yesterday, and Israeli portal Walla Communications Ltd. (TASE: WALA) has already announced that it would use every legal means at its disposal in order to “protect its rights”, and prevent Google from publishing news items and material originating from Walla!
Adv. Maya Alcheh Kaplan of the Herzog, Fox and Neeman law firm is representing Walla! in the matter. In a letter sent to Google today, she said, “Items published on my client’s website are the exclusive intellectual property of my client, and are copyrighted. Therefore, the unauthorized use by your company of these items on its website constitutes a serious breach of my clients intellectual property, as well infringing their copyright.”
Google News in Hebrew came online yesterday contains Hebrew-language news items culled other websites, including Walla! Google claims that its website includes items from 100 Hebrew-language sources. Google News is not edited by professional editors but operates on an automated system that assesses the popularity of selected web pages and their relevance to the news item in question.
Google News aggravates quite a number of newspapers and content makers, and has attracted lawsuits. A global lobby representing various newspapers launched a struggle against Google in early February for using clients’ news items taken from their websites.
The World Association of Newspapers (WAN), which represents thousands of newspapers worldwide, said at the time that it was examining ways to fight what it called “use of content by search engines without fair payment to the copyright holders.” The struggle was opened against the backdrop of a lawsuit against Google by Agence France-Presse (AFP). AFP sued Google last year on the grounds that Google News had published its pictures, news items, and stories without authorization.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on March 7, 2006
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