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Google Under Fire In Defamation Case After Someone Googled Themselves

posted by janrinok on Wednesday June 13 2018, @11:54PM   
from the we've-all-done-it dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Milorad Trkulja was shot by an unknown gunman in Melbourne in 2004, then discovered that Google searches of his name brought up images of mob figures, including prolific drug trafficker Tony Mokbel. Gangland activity in the city was prevalent at the time.

Trkulja successfully sued Google in The Victorian Supreme Court in 2012, receiving AU$200,000 in damages (roughly $150,000). He then launched a second defamation action in 2013, alleging Google's autocomplete predictions, as well as searching phrases such as "Melbourne underworld criminals", wrongly brought up his name and image. Google took the case to the Victorian Court of Appeal and won that round.

Now the High Court has granted Trkulja special leave to appeal against that decision.

"In each of the pages on which images of such persons appear," the judgement said according to the ABC, "there are also images of persons who are notorious criminals or members of the Melbourne criminal underworld... coupled with images of persons, such as Mr Trkulja whose identity is relatively unknown."

Google tried to stop the case, but the High Court ruled there was clear potential for defamation.

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Original Submission

• Re:No-win scenario for Google Re:No-win scenario for Google (Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday June 14 2018, @07:04AM (1 child)

  by c0lo (156) on Thursday June 14 2018, @07:04AM (#692742) Journal

  Whatever the results are, I don't see a scenario where Google gets out without bruises.

  How about extending "the right to be forgotten" approach even when the law of the place doesn't require it?

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  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford

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• Re:No-win scenario for Google (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Thursday June 14 2018, @04:45PM

  by tangomargarine (667) on Thursday June 14 2018, @04:45PM (#692999)

  “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is an indispensable companion to all those who are keen to make sense of life in an infinitely complex and confusing Universe, for though it cannot hope to be useful or informative on all matters, it does at least make the reassuring claim, that where it is inaccurate it is at least definitively inaccurate. In cases of major discrepancy it's always reality that's got it wrong.

  This was the gist of the notice. It said "The Guide is definitive. Reality is frequently inaccurate."

  This has led to some interesting consequences. For instance, when the Editors of the Guide were sued by the families of those who had died as a result of taking the entry on the planet Tralal literally (it said "Ravenous Bugblatter Beasts often make a very good meal for visiting tourists: instead of "Ravenous Bugblatter Beasts often make a very good meal of visiting tourists"), they claimed that the first version of the sentence was the more aesthetically pleasing, summoned a qualified poet to testify under oath that beauty was truth, truth beauty and hoped thereby to prove that the guilty party in this case was Life itself for failing to be either beautiful or true. The judges concurred, and in a moving speech held that Life itself was in contempt of court, and duly confiscated it from all those there present before going off to enjoy a pleasant evening's ultragolf.”

  Right To Force Others To Forget is stupid enough already, without going all U.S. about it and shoving it down the rest of the world's throats, Europe.

  --
  "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"

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