Belgium proves a headache for Google
A strange episode in the long-running battle between Google and Belgian newspaper groups over the weekend highlighted the complex and delicate relationship that exists between the search engine company and the media.
Copiepresse, an organisation representing Francophone Belgian newspapers, sued Google in 2006, for posting links to pictures and content on the Google News service. Copiepresse won the case and the judgement was upheld by the appeal court in May. Read more
Draft copyright treaty not as bad as feared
For months, civil libertarians and internet freedom advocates have been fretting, with good cause, about the nominally secret multilateral negotiations on a document called ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.
Essentially, the agreement aims to take the flawed US Digital Millennium Copyright Act and export it worldwide, only favoring the copyright holders more.
Numerous leaks showed drafts that would have encouraged signatory nations, including the US, Japan and EU members, to become a sort of super-copyright police, possibly cutting off repeatedly accused pirates from the internet and searching laptops at the border for unapproved movies and music. Read more
It took a long time, but Hasbro, the owner of the rights to Scrabble in the US, has teamed up with Electronic Arts to finally launch an online version of the popular crossword game. The game is available at Pogo.com today, and is scheduled to make its debut on Facebook later this month. So what does this mean for Scrabulous, Scrabble’s ersatz competitior, which took Facebook world by storm when it launched last year?
The prognosis isn’t good. Scrabulous has been under a cloud since January when Hasbro and Mattel, which owns the international rights to the game, sent letters to Facebook asking it to remove the game, citing copyright infringement. Read more
| About this blog | Blog guide |
Richard Waters has headed the FT's San Francisco bureau since 2002 and covers Google and Microsoft, among other things. A former New York bureau chief for the FT, he is intrigued by Silicon Valley's unique financial and business culture, and is looking forward to covering his second Tech Bust.
Chris Nuttall has been online and messing around with computers for more than 20 years and since 2004 has reported from the FT's San Francisco bureau on semiconductors, video games, consumer electronics and all things interwebby.
Maija Palmer has been writing about technology for the FT since 1999 and is fascinated by cybercrime, privacy and all the other issues of the information society. Based in London, she covers European tech companies and hopes that they won't all get acquired by American rivals.
Robin Kwong is the FT's technology, media and telecoms page editor in London. Formerly he was the Taipei correspondent and wrote about the companies that manufacture the vast majority of the world's computers and gadgets. He is interested in the intricacies of the technology supply chain and how China is increasingly changing the tech landscape.
Tim Bradshaw is the FT's digital media correspondent, and has just moved from London to join our team in San Francisco. He has covered start-ups such as Twitter and Spotify, as well as the online ambitions of more established media companies, such as the BBC iPlayer. He also covers the advertising, marketing and video-game industries. Tim has been writing about technology, business and finance since 2003.
