3 ms·

So because he's old and confused, he should win nonsense lawsuits?

by endtime 14y ago

DanBC 14y ago
Two judges in two separate cases don't think these are nonsense lawsuits. I think technical companies should realise that sometimes unclueful people will need to interact with them, and those people will not be able to use the provided forms and will not be able to use the correct jargon but it is still in the company's best interest to listen to, and understand, those people so as to prevent court action. You avoid court action because it's slow and expensive and because it is unpredictable. (Although, since he'd already won a case, it's not that unpredictable.) What should this guy have done? He's tried to jump through the unnecessary hoops, and it didn't work. Why should he "suffer"[1] while the multi-billion dollar company makes money off "associating his name with criminality"[2]? (Please note careful use of scare quotes.) [1] for various values of suffer, including not something that's probably not too severe for most people [2] assuming they had ads on the search pages with the relevant results; and I know the association (if any) is caused by the creators of the original website.
- jim-greer 14y ago
  The court should tell him that he sued the wrong party...
- darkarmani 14y ago
  I don't even understand why there should be a way for them to remove his search results. The search engine reports on what other sites say about people. They are not generating new content -- they consolidate results that are a map of reality. Silencing them, does not change the fact that the other sites have that content. Google is reporting true facts in its search engine: this site says X about Y. How is that not a true statement of fact? Truth should be (morally not legally) a defense here. This is where libel laws in these ridiculous venues goes wrong.
  - DanBC 14y ago
    I'm assuming he's already had the other sites remove their content, and he's just trying to get the cache cleared. I'm assuming that he followed Google's procedure to have the cache cleared, but made a mistake, and that's why they didn't do it. Rather than continue to struggle with a faceless corporation he just gave up and went to law.

So because he's old and confused, he should win nonsense lawsuits?

by endtime 14y ago

So because he's old and confused, he should win nonsense lawsuits?

DanBC 14y ago

Two judges in two separate cases don't think these are nonsense lawsuits. I think technical companies should realise that sometimes unclueful people will need to interact with them, and those people will not be able to use the provided forms and will not be able to use the correct jargon but it is still in the company's best interest to listen to, and understand, those people so as to prevent court action. You avoid court action because it's slow and expensive and because it is unpredictable. (Although, since he'd already won a case, it's not that unpredictable.) What should this guy have done? He's tried to jump through the unnecessary hoops, and it didn't work. Why should he "suffer"[1] while the multi-billion dollar company makes money off "associating his name with criminality"[2]? (Please note careful use of scare quotes.) [1] for various values of suffer, including not something that's probably not too severe for most people [2] assuming they had ads on the search pages with the relevant results; and I know the association (if any) is caused by the creators of the original website.

jim-greer 14y ago
The court should tell him that he sued the wrong party...
darkarmani 14y ago
I don't even understand why there should be a way for them to remove his search results. The search engine reports on what other sites say about people. They are not generating new content -- they consolidate results that are a map of reality. Silencing them, does not change the fact that the other sites have that content. Google is reporting true facts in its search engine: this site says X about Y. How is that not a true statement of fact? Truth should be (morally not legally) a defense here. This is where libel laws in these ridiculous venues goes wrong.
- DanBC 14y ago
  I'm assuming he's already had the other sites remove their content, and he's just trying to get the cache cleared. I'm assuming that he followed Google's procedure to have the cache cleared, but made a mistake, and that's why they didn't do it. Rather than continue to struggle with a faceless corporation he just gave up and went to law.