• Reuters, Wednesday, April 8, 2009 9:30 AM

Under attack from the newspaper industry, Google sought to defend itself on two fronts yesterday. In answer to the Associated Press, which says it is working on a plan to protect its content from misappropriation on the Internet, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, said AP has a "multimillion-dollar" deal with Google to host and distribute AP news.

Alexander Macgillivray, Google attorney, also tried to answer papers that complain Google and Yahoo make millions distributing the news content that the papers create. He asserts that Google actually helps newspaper sites make money through online advertising and does not misappropriate their content. "We drive traffic and provide advertising in support of all business models," whether news sources choose to host the articles with us or on their own Web sites, he notes. News outlets that object to Google's "fair use" of their material can request that it be removed from the company's index.

For his part, Schmidt predicted to the Newspaper Association of America that newspaper sites would end up running ads to pay for free content, selling some subscriptions and charging micro-payments for selected articles. He also criticized newspapers for not changing their business models to suit the Internet.

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