Is Belgium's Bark Worse Than Google's Bite?

I understand the tendency to become defensive regarding issues that are very emotionally charged, but in a case like this, I find it is much more productive to offer the benefit of the doubt and ask if the person knows that there are other groups to be considered. In this case, I know that Copiepresse only represents French & German-speaking press, that there are non-French & German-speaking Belgians and that they comprise the majority, and I even know a bit of the history of the Flemish people and the Flemish movement. I even have Flemish friend or two.

You'll notice, if you take a second look at the article, that the phrase "the Belgians" never appears in it. The closest thing to it is "the Belgian press," used because the news agencies involved are Belgian press (and also Belgian news outlets, which appears a bit later), even if they're not 100% of them. (The same thing happens in every country; reports often say "the American press" when what they really mean is "certain members of the United States press.") You'll notice that everywhere else in the article, about 10/11 mentions or 90% of the time, I specifically say "Copiepresse" or use a pronoun specifically relating back to Copiepress; in fact, the first line of the second paragraph is explicit, saying "The Belgian press, or rather Copiepresse." That's because the story is about the Belgian press - at least the part represented by Copiepresse - not the Belgian people, Flemish or otherwise.

I could have been clearer in the second paragraph by saying "the organization representing French and German-speaking Belgian news outlets"; to avoid confusion and hurt feelings, I've made that change. I would like to note, however, that while it was Copiepress that brought the suit, it was the Belgian Court of First Instance that ruled against Goolge and ordered them to remove the Copiepresse content. That means that indexing and/or summary linking any press content in Belgium, including Dutch-language press, is prohibited, which disadvantages all press outlets in Belgium. It could have even more far-reaching effects as well; if it's infringement to index and link news stories, then it may be infringement to index and link any other copyrighted content in Belgium. One doesn't have to allow their imagination to run far to see the potential effect of the ruling on every copyright holder in Belgium.