PC World has an article about how Belgian publishers are looking to sue Google for $77.5 million in damages for “for violating copyright law by publishing their articles on Google News and caching their web pages.” This has been going on from at least several posts that have discussed this case. Forum members are still wondering why it’s an open case — they think the $77.5 million request is a bit much, but they must’ve used Google’s site: operator to get that number. Also, while this case has been open since 2006, members suspect that everyone wants a piece of the Google pie.

Another member points out that the problem isn’t with caching the site’s content, but the content that is supposed to be for subscribing (paying) members only. The question is: who should be held accountable — Google or the incompetent Belgian publisher’s IT department? (Does anyone there know what robots.txt does?)

Forum discussion continues at DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld.