Despite suit, Google still indexing AFP content

Despite a pledge to the contrary made 16 months ago, Google is still returning links to Agence France Presse (AFP) articles in its Google News Web site.

The French news agency sued Google in March 2005, alleging copyright infringement over the inclusion of AFP content in Google News, a news search service that aggregates links to online articles and accompanying photos from about 4,500 news outlets.

Days later, Google announced it would scrub Google News clean of AFP content, including text, thumbnails of photos, and headlines linked to articles in external Web sites. However, a Google News search for “Agence France Presse” done mid-afternoon (U.S. Eastern Time) Monday shows that AFP articles are still being indexed by Google News.

In the first two pages of results, the English-language version of Google News returned links to several recent AFP-bylined articles, including one that appeared this weekend on The New York Times’ online edition headlined “Uganda Says Rebels’ Words Threaten Talks.” Meanwhile, AFP-bylined stories also came up after doing the same search in Google News’ French-language version.

Source: Juan Carlos Perez, IDZ News Service via MacWorld

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