Are you aiding and abetting in a Crime?
Sorry to be so dramatic but have you ever thought about what the search engines do as their core business?
They provide results because of the content from your website.
Have you ever told them that they could do this? Of course not. But just like a crack whore on a Saturday night we want more of what they got. Gimme some Google traffic please. And I will give you some links and more content baby. "I'll link you really good for that traffic. YEAH!" lol
But think about it. What other company could take another persons publishing's and publish it for their own profit? They are using yours and my website for their content. Heck they even cache it.
But for those precious visitors we have turned a blind eye towards any accusations of our Copyrights being Infringed.
Death of a Spider?
But now a Belgium Court is now forbidding Google from indexing Belgian newspaper content without paying each newspaper for the use of their content. Kinda fries the whole system don't it?
The ruling requires Google to remove newspaper content from its search engine database . They must also publish “in a visible and clear manner and without any commentary ....the entire intervening judgment on the home pages of ‘google.be’ and of ‘news.google.be’ .
I think this is only the beginning. So what happens when the newspapers sue Google, and then find they no longer exist in the Google database at all! Is it their Divine Right to be in the Google Index?
We will see how this logic takes shape. Many up and coming content providers are sure to face these challenges. A case in point are the new Propsmart/Trulia type engines. They are using MLS content that they may scrape, get uploaded by agents, or they possibly upload themselves.
At some point we must ask where are the feeds coming from? Who owns it?
And won't it be interesting when Google scrapes the "scrapers" and not only de-positions the Real Estate Search engines in their normal Organic results. But also takes their data for Google Base?
Clearly these engines cannot exist based on brand name alone..After millions in seed Capital, I think I just gave some Angels a devilish reminder of what can very well happen in this Wild West we call the internet.
