A Belgian court reaffirmed an earlier judgment against Google this week demanding Google remove Copiepress-represented news publication material from Google.be and Google News. Google issued a statement expressing "disappointment" and a plan to appeal the verdict.

It’s beginning to look like 2007 could be a very long year for Google in the legal department.

In a court ruling early Tuesday, a judge ruled in favor of Belgian newspapers in their dispute with Google, citing that the Internet company was guilty of copyright infringement.

The Brussels court ruled in favor of Copiepresse, a consortium that represents the eighteen newspapers that brought complaints against Google.

The Japanese government plans to amend existing copyright laws to make allowances for search engine indexing, according to Japan Today.

A couple of parties to a lawsuit in Belgium against Google for its news indexing have settled with the search advertising giant, but Google will have to wait until 2007 to fight an injunction against its scraping of news content managed by distributor Copiepresse.

An expressed desire for better indexing from Google News has prompted Google to release a Sitemaps product specifically for those news publishers.

Media groups in Norway and Denmark have begun, like several others before them, to protest Google News’s practices. The Norwegian association objects to the reproduction of certain images and photographs, while the Danish faction is asking Google to make separate arrangements with each publisher.

Being compelled to remove certain news sources from the Google index and Google News was not a big deal for the company, but being required to post the judgment on its Belgian homepage apparently touched a nerve with the search advertising company.

Shortly after some impressive huff-and-puff grandstanding, Google decided it best to comply with a Belgian court order after all. The company initially refused an order to post a ruling against Google on its Belgian homepage and Google News site, and seemed to take the $640,000 daily fine on the chin.