Suing Google Because You Don't Like What It Links To

from the another-day,-another-bogus-Google-lawsuit dept

Mon, Feb 11th 2008 9:06am — Mike Masnick

Google's lawyers certainly are kept busy these days, given all the questionable lawsuits that seem to keep showing up. We've already covered numerous examples of Google getting sued by people who don't like how certain sites are ranked -- including last week's story of a Chinese professor who is planning to sue Google (and Yahoo) to call attention to the fact that both search engines have removed all evidence of his existence from their search engines in China (after he called for a more democratic China). Reader Jon writes in to let us know of a slightly different lawsuit against Google. Rather than complaining about missing content, this one is about there being too much content found by Google. That is, two Australian real estate agents are suing Google for linking to an allegedly defamatory article about the agents.

Of course, even if the article is totally and completely defamatory, it's hard to see how Google has any liability whatsoever. If there's a defamatory article, then the liability is on whoever wrote it and put it online. The fact that Google found it in a search shouldn't transfer liability to them -- even if (as the agents indicate) Google was told that the content was defamatory. Google is merely a search engine and cannot be held liable for the content it links to. Hopefully this case gets thrown out of court rather quickly.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: defamation, lawsuits, links, search engines
Companies: google

16 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Anonymous Coward, 11 Feb 2008 @ 10:41am

Question....Would they even know the negative article even existed without Google????
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Google Master, 11 Feb 2008 @ 10:41am

People sure are stupid these days.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 11 Feb 2008 @ 10:52am

I'm going to sue sprint because someone once said something defamatory about me on their cellphone over sprints network.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
zachary, 11 Feb 2008 @ 11:01am

horible
[ link to this | view in thread ]
zachary, 11 Feb 2008 @ 11:03am

bad very bad.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
XCetron, 11 Feb 2008 @ 11:31am

maybe people failed to realize that theyre not paying google for anything and its not a public service, its a company.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Max, 11 Feb 2008 @ 11:41am

Ok
Would this apply to: Suing The Pirate Bay Because You Don't Like What It Links To
[ link to this | view in thread ]
meoip, 11 Feb 2008 @ 12:35pm

Works
they sue because it keeps working.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
archippus, 11 Feb 2008 @ 12:56pm

Re:
i think that's the point.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 11 Feb 2008 @ 1:08pm

WOW, if it's this bad now imagine what it will be like for our kids
[ link to this | view in thread ]
bk, 11 Feb 2008 @ 1:08pm

"Google is merely a search engine and cannot be held liable for the content it links to. Hopefully this case gets thrown out of court rather quickly"

Sounds like Pirate Bay....
[ link to this | view in thread ]
JS Beckerist, 11 Feb 2008 @ 1:37pm

Re: Re:
While I agree that google can't be held accountable for the content of others peoples pages, I do believe they should be held accountable for their own content. If they are caching or linking to, say, Tubgirl, I'm pretty sure it falls WELL within 99.9% of everyone's ethical belief system that it SHOULD be removed. Now, then, the line is drawn at the completely subjective "what is unethical?"

The reason I agree with this article is that I don't believe the courts should answer this very important question for us.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Xeno, 11 Feb 2008 @ 2:14pm

Re: by Google Master on Feb 11th, 2008 @ 10:41am
I think it is more greed than stupidity at this point. People want to see how far they can bend the legal tape
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Enrico Suarve, 12 Feb 2008 @ 1:50am

Barbara would be proud
Just in case anyone was interested, heres the link to the original article in question http://www.jenmangroup.com.au/news_item.php?id=368

Just for the laugh I used Yahoo to find it ;0)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Killer_Tofu (profile), 12 Feb 2008 @ 5:09am

Thinking the same thing
as poster #7 and #11.
Pirate Bay has the same situation.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
trae da truth, 13 Feb 2008 @ 12:42pm

all of you guys are GAY i hate every one of u. get at me daw!
[ link to this | view in thread ]