Google News stops using AFP
The battle between the aggregated news sites and the "old media" is far from over. The French news agency AFP has recently sued <http://news.google.com/nwshp?hl=en&gl=us>Google News for US$ 17.5 million, for using photos, headlines and leads. According to a <http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,120125,00.asp>PC World Google has now decided to remove all AFP stories from Google News.
The big question is of course, if the rest of the news agencies will follow in AFP's footsteps in order to protect their main business. Where as online newspapers may gain just as much as they loose from being part of Google News, a news agency has fairly few clients which may in fact prefer to buy news which hasn't already been used on the web. This would significantly change the contents of Google News. However, in the long run, the court case between AFP and Google has far more consequences.