... But Belgium is "a chink in the armor," says copyright attorney Lee Carl Bromberg, a partner with Bromberg & Sunstein in Boston, who is not involved in the litigation.

Bromberg thinks the case is "a serious problem" for Google, which has always relied on indexing Web pages and online content for free under so-called fair use provisions. Google has taken a "somewhat aggressive approach on copyright," he adds. In the future, Bromberg says, Google may need to make "an acknowledgement of the copyright and perhaps some sort of payment for the usage."

Indeed, if the Belgian ruling is upheld, or if similar cases are filed and won in other jurisdictions, it could have far-reaching implications for the future of all content aggregators, not just Google. "If I were a press body and wanted to stop [content aggregation], I would tout this decision," says Matthew Harris, a partner at Norton Rose, a firm of solicitors in London. ...