Google Sued By Australian Real Estate Agent For Defamation
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In an interesting case out of Victoria, Australia, two real estate agent are suing Google for defamation. The agents claim that they asked Google to remove articles from their indexes that were defamatory but that Google did not act upon those requests.
What is interesting in this is that Google is just the messenger. Unless the articles are in Google news they are being pulled from other sites. All Google is doing is linking to those sites.
Counsel for agents Mark Forytarz and Paul Castran of Castran Gilbert, appeared in the Supreme Court today for a directions hearing, alleging their clients have been defamed by articles found via Google searches.
The plaintiffs claim the articles suggest Mr Forytarz bullied an intellectually disabled man into selling his home in order to claim a commission of at least $200,000. via ABC News
I can not speak for the defamation laws of Australia but in the United States this would not hold water. Instead, I would recommend to these gentleman that they go after the original sites and then ask them to get Google to remove the links to the information.
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Comment by dean on 9 February 2008:
Ah yes stop making sense Tommy!
The reason Google is being sued is the size of their wallet vs that of the companies directly responsible.
Fat cat syndrome.
dean
Comment by Tom on 9 February 2008:
Sorry Dean, I will work on it.
Comment by Deal Junkie on 9 February 2008:
what do you expect? they are real estate agents.
Comment by Mark Harrison on 9 February 2008:
If Google just pulled news from everywhere and didn’t remove ANY news, they might have the “just reporting” defence. However, there are plenty of instances where Google HAVE removed all links to particular items. (This is a lot less common in the US than it is in the rest of the world, to be fair.)
A smart prosecutor might argue that Google were NOT acting merely as an aggregator, but were making plenty of value judgements as to what to include… so should be treated as a newspaper accepting submissions from freelancers!
Out of interest, are you a US Lawyer?
If not, why are you giving written legal advice? You disclaimed knowledge of Australian law and then went on to give what any good prosecutor would describe as “legal advice” for US actions
I’m being flippant
but that is EXACTLY the kind of argument that these court cases turn on!
Comment by Tom on 9 February 2008:
Mark
That is sort of my question, was it Google or Google News. There is a big difference there, but also Google typically links, not reports.
Oh, and I am most definately not a lawyer, but was raised by a NY Property Lawyer , sort of like staying at a Holiday Inn last night…
Comment by costa rice on 11 February 2008:
i don’t think that they are real estate agent, one thing sure google will not contact any body about links. so i think they are making fool of you.