The opening sentence of Bloomberg's account (via the Baltimore Sun) of Google's recent settlement with Belgian photographers and journalists is rather unremarkable:

Google Inc., the world's most-used Internet search engine, reached a settlement with Belgian photographers and journalists yesterday in a copyright dispute over how the company's news service links to newspaper content.

The next sentence, however, grabbed me by the seat of my pants:

The agreement removes two of five groups from a Brussels lawsuit that seeks to prevent Google from linking to Belgian newspaper articles for free. ... The settlements may show that Google is willing to resolve disputes with content providers trying to prevent the company from linking to Web sites without compensation.

That's not a misprint or a misquote. Belgian media firms are suing Google for doing what search engines are supposed to do, directing the users of search engines to information for which they are searching. Essentially Belgian content providers want compensation from Google for the right to linking to their content. This is a rather amazing demand. Given how hard it is to get found on the internet without a search engine, you'd think that they'd be paying Google for the links rather than the other way around.

Commentary

The fact that the Belgian are demanding payment says a lot about a lot, in particular the sorry state of mainstream media, both here and abroad; and perhaps the low quality of their content, the apparent collapse of their business and revenue models; a failure to comprehend the rudiments of information economics, network externalities, and internet-enabled social-networking.