GOOGLE NEWS AND AP SETTLE

The Independent reports that Associated Press has settled its copyright suit against Google. The press agency objected to Google’s inclusion of its content in its news service. Google argued that its service just provides links and headlines from the news service, but AP argued that this is tantamount to copyright infringement. Now AP has agreed to provide stories, features and other content in return for filthy lucre. Google is saying that the deal is a discrete operation, and should not be taken as a precedent for payment to all the sources that Google taps for its news service.

The IPKat says that this is a bit of a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t situation for the news services. It might be a bit nasty to have your news used by Google, but it would be even nastier to not be deemed worthy of inclusion. He also notes that the news services don’t lose out completely – if people click through from Google News, the news services get the advertising revenue.