On Friday, the lower house of the German parliament passed a watered-down copyright bill, which marks a notable victory for Google in Europe because it implies that the Internet search giant will not have to pay fees for displaying links to news articles.

With the language of the watered-down copyright legislation - which still needs to be approved by the upper house of Germany's parliament - being a sharp turn from the bill's original draft, Google and other search engines will get free rein when they publish small text excerpts from news stories in search results.

Google had vigorously fought against the original legislation, which would have chiefly permitted newspapers and other print publishers to stop search companies from displaying text snippets in their search results, unless they paid licensing fees.

While opposing the original bill, Google had argued that the proposed legislation would not only hinder basic Internet search capabilities in Germany - which is the biggest economy in Europe - but would also set a disquieting precedent for online copyright disputes brewing in other European countries.

Appreciating the move by the German legislators to stop the copyright bill "in its most damaging form," Ralf Bremer - Google's spokesman in Germany - said that "the best outcome for Germany would be no new legislation because it threatens innovation, particularly for start-ups."