Brussels, Belgium - French-language newspapers in Belgium have reached a truce of sorts with Google, and will allow the search engine to once again link to their websites, but talks fell short of an agreement that would return their articles to Google News, the Associated Press reported.

The newspapers, represented by the group Copiepresse, successfully sued Google to prevent it from including their articles on the Google News index without their permission.

The Belgian court rejected Google's claims that its use of headlines, snippets of articles, and photographs constituted "fair use" of the newspapers' content, and ordered their removal; Google has appealed that ruling.

"The Belgian French and German-language daily press publishers and Google Inc. intend to use a quiet period in the court dispute to continue their efforts to identify tangible ways to collaborate in the long term," the parties said in a joint statement.

Google settled a similar lawsuit with the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency last month, agreeing to license AFP content for "new" uses.

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/2gau2w (AP)

http://www.copiepresse.be