[ NNSquad ] Google has to change autocomplete entries if they are defamatory, German court rules

[Lauren Weinstein <lauren@vortex.com>]

Google has to change autocomplete entries if they are defamatory, German court rules

http://j.mp/10wWF8h  (AP / Mercury News)

     The Federal Court of Justice upheld a complaint from an unidentified
     company selling nutritional supplements and its founder, identified
     only as "R.S." The plaintiffs claimed that when their names were
     entered on Google's German-language website, it suggested links to
     Scientology and fraud.

 - - -

Let's be very clear what this means. It's a doomed attempt to stuff
the genie back into the bottle, to un-ring a bell.  And most of all
(here comes metaphor #3) it's the proverbial camel's nose under the
tent toward disastrous government micromanagement and broad,
arbitrary censorship of search engine results.  And by the way ...
Given all the fraudulent nutritional supplements, the connection with
fraud in autocomplete seems quite reasonable. A different branch of
the German government itself seems to agree: "Germany proposes
crack-down on German food supplements" - http://j.mp/10wXzSs
(ANH-Europe).

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren 
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info
Founder:
 - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org 
 - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
 - Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org
 - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren 
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com
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