Google has flat-out denied the earlier report it had struck deals with UK newspaper publishers for content carriage on Google News. As Rafat noted, yesterday’s Sunday Herald, without attribution, claimed the search giant had “reached deals with several large UK news groups over carrying their content on Google News”. Such a deal might have given the service come legal breathing room against increasingly copyright conscious publishing groups.

SEE ALSO: Google Reaches News Deal In UK?

But Google’s UK press team has just said “the story is not true” and issued a tough defense - reminiscent of those it uses against YouTube copyright bashers - to any other publishers who might consider following AFP, AP and Belgian newspapers in to court against the site.

“We have not changed our approach to Google News,” a spokesperson told paidContent.org. “We believe Google News is legal. We index the content of thousands of news sources online. When users go to Google News, they see only headlines, snippets and image thumbnails from the relevant news articles. If people want to read the story, they must click through links in our results to the original website.

“In some circumstances we have entered into an agreement that allows us to [make] greater use of content. For example, we’ve agreed to pay the Associated Press (AP) for the right to make new uses of their news content – uses that go beyond the limited uses permitted by copyright laws. This use of AP content will make our services even more valuable.”

There was no elaboration on what those extra uses are.