Yesterday an Australian court found Google liable for defaming someone simply by returning a search result about her. The plaintiff in that case, Janice Duffy, complained that a search for her name returned links to unfavorable articles on the Ripoff Report website, as well as prompting unfavorable autocomplete suggestions when used as a search term. The court's finding of liability on Google's part, when it merely provided a service that generated these links and suggestions, is a blow for the Australian Internet and for innovation and access to knowledge. The judgment [PDF] of the South Australian Supreme Court goes to amazing lengths to justify why a search engine should be found liable in such a case, but its reasoning defies common sense. For example, the court explains that Google was liable for "publishing" the defamatory articles because it provided a working hyperlink to them, whereas if it had published the bare URLs without hyperlinks, it would…
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