LONDON — Belgium's newspapers are on the warpath again.
Copiepresse, a group representing French- and German-language newspaper publishers in Belgium, has sent a legal notice to Yahoo! asking the site to stop displaying its members' articles and photographs.
The lobby group says that using the material without prior authorization constitutes a breach of copyright.
The move comes in the wake of similar Copiepresse campaigns against Google and the Microsoft-owned MSN search engines.
Last October, a Belgian court ordered Google to remove all French- and German-language Belgian newspaper content from its search results.
Google challenged the ruling, saying it only publishes extracts of articles and always provides links to the original Web sites. A fresh ruling is expected this year.
In the meantime, most French- and German-language Belgian newspaper content has been removed. Dutch-language articles continue to be posted freely.
MSN is reported to be working on a compromise solution.
"After what we did to Google, Yahoo! knows we're not joking," Copiepresse secretary-general Margaret Boribon told Belgian magazine "Le Vif."
In response to the notice, Yahoo! issued a statement saying it respected "the copyright of content owners" and that it would respond in "an appropriate manner."
Some media pundits have questioned the wisdom of Copiepresse's campaign, pointing out that search engines such as Google and Yahoo! help generate traffic and ultimately boost advertising revenue.
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