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Lawsuit Against Google Dismissed
Posted by
kdawson
on Sun Mar 25, 2007 01:56 AM
from the and-a-pony dept.
from the and-a-pony dept.
Weather Storm writes in with news from PCWorld that a US District Court judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed against Google by a company that accused them of manipulating search results for political and religious reasons and skewing results in favor of companies that compensate Google financially. The lawsuit (discussed on Slashdot last year) was filed by KinderStart, a parenting information Web site that claims it was illegally blocked from Google search results. The judge not only dismissed the lawsuit but granted a motion by Google to sanction KinderStart and one of its lawyers. Google can now seek "reasonable compensation" for attorney fees because KinderStart's lawyer filed claims that were factually baseless and did not perform an adequate investigation before filing the lawsuit.
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Yardboy wrote in to tell us about a story from Reuters describing a lawsuit by parental advice company Kinderstart.com against Google for 'charging it unfairly deprived the company of customers by downgrading its search-result ranking without reason or warning.' Kinderssart claims Google is responsible for 'a "cataclysmic" 70 percent fall in its audience -- and a resulting 80 percent decline in revenue.' I guess the courts will now decide: Can google taketh what they giveth?
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Go to your room! (Score:5, Funny)
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Not far enough (Score:5, Insightful)
I mean, so what if Google skews their search results? They aren't under any obligation to link to the whole web or to do so in an objective manner.
Re:Not far enough (Score:5, Interesting)
Kinderstart didn't have any claims that had merit, so there wasn't really a possibility of creating any new precedent or caselaw. They judge just tossed the whole thing out, and then as a bonus, said they were so ridiculously bad, that Kinderstart should have known not to bring such a steaming pile into the courtroom, in the first place.
In order to 'go any further,' Kinderstart would have needed to have a claim with a modicum of merit, which they didn't.
I guess maybe you can hope that someone smarter will sue Google for the same thing tomorrow, but I think they're probably just happy for the moment.
Re:Not far enough (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Not far enough (totally OT) (Score:3, Funny)
Maybe it's just early in the morning, but I read that phrase as "creating any new precedent or coleslaw."
Then I thought WTF? You mean the judge wanted to make salad out of
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I think it would be good if there was an explicit exemption in copyright law for a site that did link to
Re:Not far enough (Score:5, Funny)
And it would put a bunch of lawyers out of work. What are you? Some kind of commie?
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Imagine if NewsMedia Had To Do This! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Imagine if NewsMedia Had To Do This! (Score:4, Insightful)
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The media is inane enoug
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No kidding. I'm sick and tired of such pointless news. We should focus on more important things -- like Britney's Hair [wikipedia.org].
-Grey [wellingtongrey.net]
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"I have no idea, I don't care about that" (Score:2)
I was listening to some back Podcasts of the Penn Jillette Radio Show and one episode had
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I can easily imagine a system where the news media had to report on issues that the government wanted it to report on. Freedom of the press is for those commie "glasnost" whiners.
A Good Start (Score:2, Interesting)
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Wait, maybe I missed something (Score:5, Informative)
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Haha (Score:4, Funny)
Well, Google Can Sue Them (Score:5, Interesting)
http://www.kinderstart.com/cgi-bin/sqlsearch.cgi?
They have been removed from KinderStart's search engine, in violation of their first amendment right to free speech!
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Note that KinderStart isn't too proud to show Google Ads, though.
Frankly, if I were in Google's ad department, I'd be easing things like
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Something in the water (Score:5, Funny)
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I never understood (Score:4, Interesting)
Copyright? (Score:2)
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Not to say that I agree with Kinderstart.com's reasoning, but they
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While I kind of agree with you about a moral obligation, I think it is important that this is not misconstrued to be any sort of legal
Could lowering a sites ranking be defermation? (Score:2)
If a site is number 1 according to the algorithmic ranking engine, that says something about is place in world (or at list World Wide Web) opinion. Then the search company lowers the sites ranking st
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No. The ranking engine is not a static entity. The rankings change all the time as they tweak the algorithm and it's paramet
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Once a company reaches a certain level of dominance it then takes on additional scrutiny. Google has just about reached a point where it could control the ability for a commercial website to succeed. With that power, practices like changing search results based on how much money they receive could be seen as coercive.
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These facts are about as related as the color of my car & its make & model.
No such pledge... (Score:2)
Why have Google ads then? (Score:3, Funny)
I thought the Reality Distortion Field only applied to Apple...
Just ask the police... (Score:2)
This is funny stuff (Score:4, Funny)
"All options are being explored. That's all that we are going to say at this point," Yu told news agency Reuters.
I imagine those options probably include "running away" and "hope to god they don't sue us".
Baseless claims and no adequate investigation (Score:3, Funny)
KinderStart, Powered by Slashdot! (Score:2)
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