I believe that the case of the Belgian newspaper against Google News (they didn't like Google listing their stories) is what we call a pyrrhic victory:

Take a look at this search. It returns zero results, just this message:

In response to a legal request submitted to Google, we have removed 1237 result(s) from this page. If you wish, you may read more about the request at ChillingEffects.org.

That’s right: those Belgian newspapers wanted Google to pay for the privilege of sending them readers, so Google is going to take their greed and use it to cut off their legs. Want to bet those papers lose tens of percentages of their traffic? All statistics say yes, and I’ll bet the Hitwise blog is working up a real pretty chart to prove it.

That's going to leave a mark. The funny thing is, Google is complying with the letter of the order that came down. If the newspaper in question was looking for invisibility, they certainly won. Otherwise - not so much.

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