Argentinian Celebrities Succeed In Forcing Search Engines To Block Search Results On Their Name

from the internet-stupidity dept

Proving, once again, that common sense isn't so common, News.com is reporting on a series of orders handed down by judges in Argentina that have forced Google and Yahoo to completely block searches on certain Argentinian celebrities. Apparently, some Argentinian models who were upset that their pictures were showing up on some porn sites, sued both Yahoo and Google. For anyone who understands just about anything about how the internet works, it would be easy to recognize that this lawsuit was grossly mistargeted. Yahoo and Google have nothing to do with the content on the various websites they point to, but apparently Argentinian models and judges do not seem to recognize this.

So, the judges issued an injunction, demanding that Google and Yahoo block references to the models. This "win" caused other Argentinian celebrities who were upset with content online about them to seek out the same lawyer, who filed similar lawsuits over and over again. Each time, the court has issued an injunction, forcing Google and Yahoo to block results on those individuals. In some cases, they've tried to block specific results, but in at least one case, Yahoo has blocked all results on a search for Argentinian soccer star Diego Maradona. The blocks only impact the Argentinian sites, but it still seems fairly ridiculous.

Google is appealing the injunctions, saying that this really seems like something of a shakedown. The company is also trying to explain to the Argentinian government why it should put in place safe harbor laws that protect service providers from being liable for the content created by others. Of course, even without such laws in place, common sense should prevail. Apparently, though, common sense remains less common than commonly believed.

Filed Under: argentina, celebrities, liability, safe harbors, search engines
Companies: google, yahoo

Do The New SEC Rules On Linking Violate Section 230 Safe Harbors?

from the maybe-so... dept

Eric Goldman has submitted comments to the SEC explaining how its recent guidelines concerning the liability for companies based on links on their websites most likely violates the safe harbor provisions in Section 230 of the CDA. Section 230, as we've discussed over and over again, provides a clear safe harbor to protect third parties from liability for the actions of others. While we personally think it should just be common sense that third parties shouldn't be liable for the actions of others, it's been clear for way too long that common sense isn't really all that common.

In this case, the SEC indicated that some companies may be liable for content on third party sites that they link to, if the link gives the impression that the company has approved or endorsed the info. As Goldman points out, this appears to be in violation of the safe harbors, as no one should be liable for content they have no control over -- even if they indicate they might endorse that content.

Filed Under: liability, linking, sec, section 230

As Expected, Prostitutes Move Elsewhere After Craigslist Change

from the good-job-doing-nothing dept

We pointed out how little sense it made for various state attorneys general to force Craigslist to charge for the "erotic services" group. It would appear that at least 40 states' attorneys general are not chess players, because they only were thinking one move out. That is, they thought: "Well, there's prostitution happening via Craigslist. Let's stop Craigslist from allowing that." But, of course, they didn't bother to think of what would happen next: which is that the prostitutes would scatter to numerous other sites, meaning that the amount of prostitution would continue pretty much unabated, but it would be more scattered and much more difficult for police to track down and stop. You would think that the folks in charge of such things would recognize that the way you stop crime is by going after the actual criminals, rather than the tools they use.

So, what happened after Craigslist implemented the change? Exactly what you'd expect. Ed Kohler checked it out and noticed (as you'd expect) that the number of ads on Craigslist's erotic services dropped significantly, but the number of ads elsewhere jumped up somewhat (including some on Craigslist's "Therapeutic Services" -- suggesting that some are trying to skirt the new charging system). Kohler only looked at one other site, so it may look like the increase in ads isn't that big -- but if you add up a variety of similar sites, you can bet that it's quite likely that in total it added up to quite a lot. It's just that, now, it's a lot more work for police to actually monitor.

Filed Under: attorney general, liability, prostitution, richard blumenthal
Companies: craigslist

Italy Moves Forward With Plan To Prosecute Google Execs Over Online Video

from the bad,-bad-precedent dept

Earlier this year, we were somewhat stunned that prosecutors in Italy would be charging four Google execs with criminal charges, because some kids had posted a video of themselves taunting a boy with Down Syndrome on Google's Italian video hosting site. The execs in question obviously had absolutely nothing to do with the video. The kids who filmed and uploaded the video have been charged separately, and it makes absolutely no sense to then charge executives at the company that provided the tool. Why is Italy not also charging the executives of the company who made the mobile phone that was used to film the video? Or the executives of the ISP that was used to upload the video? Or the administrators of the school where the video was filmed? Any of those would make just as much sense as suing Google execs.

We had hoped that, perhaps, an inkling of common sense would come into the proceedings, but instead, it appears that the Italian prosecutor is moving forward and demanding the execs appear in court for a trial starting early next year. If this moves forward, it sets a horrible precedent, effectively allowing prosecutors to blame just about anyone who is tangentially connected to a crime. It's a travesty of justice, and the Italian justice system should be ashamed that it's even gotten this far.

Filed Under: italy, liability, videos
Companies: google

Craigslist Pressured Into Policing Ads For Prostitution

from the misplaced-blame dept

We've talked plenty about how New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has been using legal threats to get companies to change business practices, even if those practices aren't illegal. But, he's not the only Attorney General who tries to make headlines with bogus legal threats. Neighboring Connecticut has Richard Blumenthal, who has similarly blamed companies for the actions of their users. First, it was Facebook for having sexual predators on the site, and then it was Craigslist for for having prostitution ads. You'll notice in all of these cases, the threats involve actions that are generally considered less than socially acceptable. This way, even though the companies being blamed are not liable and clearly protected by section 230 of the CDA (you would think, as AGs, Cuomo and Blumenthal would, I dunno, know the law...), the threat of bad publicity gets companies to cave.

And, in fact, it appears that Craigslist has, indeed, been pressured into agreeing to monitor postings on its websites to try to prevent prostitution ads. 39 other Attorneys General joined in with Blumenthal, so it's of little surprise that Craigslist agreed to do this, even though it seems pretty clear that the law was on its side. As a service provider, it is in no way responsible or liable for the content placed on its site. The law and various court rulings are pretty clear on that, but when you have 40 Attorneys General gunning for you, painting you as a proponent of prostitution, sometimes it makes sense to cave.

The most ridiculous thing, of course, is that this will do little to nothing to actually deal with the root issue. Prostitution will continue -- and it will continue online. Those who used Craigslist before will simply move on to other sites. In fact, those sites will be much trickier to find and track down, meaning that it now becomes much more difficult for authorities to crack down on the actual law breakers. In fact, we've noted that police say that Craigslist is a very useful tool in monitoring and cracking down on prostitution. And, now, to get some headlines about how these AGs were "tough" on prostitution, they've just taken that tool away from police, while opening the door to forcing Craigslist to have to monitor posts on its site -- something the law says the company need not do.

Filed Under: andrew cuomo, liability, richard blumenthal, service providers
Companies: craigslist

Germany Says P2P Company Must Proactively Monitor Content For Infringement

from the a-little-understanding-please? dept

Another day, another awful legal ruling about file sharing. This time, coming out of Germany. A German court has told file hosting company Rapid Share that it needs to proactively screen and monitor all content hosted on its site and remove any infringing files. The company already uses a hash method to screen out infringing files its been alerted to and employs six people who monitor for infringement, but the court has said that's not enough. Specifically, it notes (correctly) that an uploader need only change a file slightly to avoid the hash filter -- but then somehow makes the leap to suggesting that this becomes Rapid Share's liability. It's yet another case where judges seem to not understand where liability should lie. It should be common sense that liability lies with the user who's doing the actual infringing, rather than the platform provider -- but it seems to get mixed up way too often. Of course, in the grand scheme of things, this will have almost no impact as people will simply migrate to other sites instead.

Filed Under: copyright, file sharing, germany, liability, monitoring
Companies: rapid share

UK Ad Standards Group Says Publishers Are Still Responsible For Auto Generated Ads

from the uk-needs-section-230 dept

It continues to amaze me how important a law like section 230 of the CDA is to keep ridiculous situations from occurring. Fundamentally, we shouldn't even need a section 230 -- which notes that online service providers aren't responsible for the actions of users -- since it should be common sense. The person liable for violating a law should be the person who actually violated the law, and not the tool they used to violate the law. Yet, as we see time and time again in other countries that have no Section 230 equivalent, such common sense doesn't always play out.

Take, for example, a ruling by the Advertising Standards Authority in the UK, that says that any online publishers are responsible for the text of any ads they display -- even if those ads are automatically generated, such as by a system like Google's AdSense. That puts publishers in a really tricky position. The whole benefit of using something like AdSense is the fact that it easily fills in mostly relevant remnant ad inventory, without requiring the publisher to carefully review and sell the ad space. Making those publishers liable for the content of those ads is only going to drive them away from using such ads altogether, which doesn't benefit anyone. Yes, you can understand that the ASA doesn't want questionable ads out there, but then the liability should fall on those actually responsible: the advertiser who created the questionable ad. Not the publisher who had no control over it.

Filed Under: ads, automated ads, liability, platforms, section 230, uk

Spain Recognizes That Deep Linking To Infringing Content Is Not Infringing

from the a-good-ruling dept

While other countries are still going back and forth on whether or not just linking to infringing content should be seen as infringing as well, an appeals court in Spain has upheld a lower court ruling that merely linking to infringing content is not infringing itself. This makes a lot of sense, as putting up links to content controlled by others should never be seen as a crime, especially when the linking party might not have any idea whether or not the linked content is infringing, and when that content could potentially change. Either way, this is a good ruling for various torrent tracker sites, since all they are doing is linking to content, rather than hosting any themselves.

Filed Under: copyright, deep linking, infringement, liability, spain

Is Stubhub Guilty Of Violating Anti-Scalping Laws? Not This Time...

from the unsettled-law dept

We've seen a few different lawsuits involving ticket reselling website Stubhub (owned by eBay). Last year, you may remember, a court forced Stubhub to hand over the identity of sellers of New England Patriots' tickets, despite the fact that Stubhub's terms of service protect users' privacy. One of the big questions brought up by various lawsuits is whether or not Stubhub is guilty of violating various anti-scalping laws. It seems like it would be clear that Stubhub, as the platform provider, is not liable and is protected by Section 230 of the CDA. And, in fact, that's what a court has just found, dismissing a complaint against Stubhub. However, as Eric Goldman notes at that link, this seems to contradict with at least one other ruling against Stubhub -- meaning that this is hardly settled law, and we should expect to see a bunch more lawsuits along these lines pop up before this gets worked out.

Filed Under: liability, scalping, section 230
Companies: ebay, stubhub

Google, Microsoft And Yahoo Sued In India For Not Preventing Sex Selection Ads

from the misunderstanding-liability dept

India unfortunately doesn't have the equivalent of section 230 of the CDA, which prevents service providers from being sued for the actions of their users. That's why Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are all facing a lawsuit over certain types of ads in India. Apparently it's illegal in India to advertise any technique or product designed to influence the sex of a child. However, such ads have been appearing on all three sites. The problem, though, is that the liability should be on those who are actually buying the advertising. They're the parties who are really breaking the law. Yet, because Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are easier targets (and have a lot more money), that's who gets targeted.

Filed Under: advertisements, india, liability
Companies: google, microsoft, yahoo