July 3 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc., owner of the most-popular Internet search engine, filed an appeal seeking to overturn a copyright ruling in a Belgian case that restricted the company's ability to link to news stories.

Google filed the appeal last month with the Brussels Court of Appeal while continuing talks with Belgian publishing association Copiepresse, said Google spokeswoman Jessica Powell. In May, the two sides reached a partial settlement that allowed Google to offer access to portions of the newspapers' Web sites.

A Brussels court on Feb. 13 found Google guilty of breaching copyright laws by publishing links to the Belgian newspaper articles on its Internet news service without permission. It ordered the company to remove all Belgian news content from its Web site or face daily fines of 25,000 euros ($34,000).

``Google and Copiepresse are in discussions about how to resolve this dispute,'' Powell said in an e-mail. ``We did file the appeal 10 days ago to keep our options open.''

A substantial court hearing won't be scheduled ``for several months,'' she said.

The appeal won't interfere with settlement negotiations, according to Copiepresse, the newspaper's copyright agency that sued Mountain View, California-based Google.

``This does however not mean that the ongoing negotiations between the two sides are interrupted,'' Margaret Boribon, secretary-general of the agency, said by telephone today.

Google News

The two sides on May 3 announced a first agreement that allows Internet users to access Belgian newspapers again on Google's Belgian Web site. The agreement doesn't affect Google's News service, Powell said May 3.

Boribon today wouldn't say whether a similar agreement is close on the news site, other than saying that negotiations are proceeding.

Belgian business newspaper L'Echo had previously reported that Google filed the appeal.

Google News was introduced in Belgium in January 2006, showing headlines, photos and the first few lines of news stories with links to the full articles on the newspapers' Web sites.

Belgium's French- and German-language newspapers sued, arguing Google couldn't link to the articles directly without consulting them or paying them compensation. Google said that using headlines and text fragments with links to newspaper Web sites on Google News is legal.

The court in Brussels earlier this year ruled there's ``no exception'' to allow this in Belgian copyright law.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stephanie Bodoni in Luxembourg at sbodoni@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 3, 2007 10:35 EDT