Mikkel_Svendsen - 6:55 pm on Jul 5, 2002 (gmt 0)

I just came back from the court room and the meeting after the ruling. It's been a long sad day!

I have been involved in the case, consulting NewsBooster on search related issues before, under and now after the case - so I know a great deal about the details of the case.

I was there during the case and at the ruling today and there is nothing in the ruling that fit NewsBooster that would not fit Google or FAST as well. Had it been either one of the two engines that had been on trial - and not NewsBooster - they would have lost. In many ways, what Google and FAST is doing is far more extreme than what NewsBooster is doing and was convicted for. I only have to mention caching of full pages, converting of formats (manipulation of copyrighted material), picture search etc …

What happened today is that a search engines was banned in court – it could have been any search engine, but the newspapers lawyers (wisely) chose a very small one with limited funds to defend themselves.

Google make money too (I hope so), and both FAST and Inktomi try to do that also :) – There is no different from what Google is trying to do and What NewsBooster is doing. They basically run a search engine. Google cover everything – NewsBooster just cover a small corner of the Internet. Google make money on what they collect by crawling from partnerships and advertising. NewsBooster do it by subscription.

The ruling said nothing about HOW NewsBooster makes money from the service – just the fact that it is NewsBoosters _core_ business to make money from the URL’s they find by crawling the web. That is exactly what any search engine (tries) to do.

I will be ready to answer any detailed questions any of you might have about the case. Also, if you are with the press and need to talk to me or any of the involved parties in the case I can arrange for it.

I usually do not reveal my phone and e-mail publicly like this, but the case is to important for any delays so you are welcome to contact me at either: newsbooster@joyzone.dk or (+45) 22 27 07 10 – direct line.