Max Mosley sues Google

[Fawkes]

Max Mosley is suing Google in France and Germany in an attempt to force the internet company to monitor and censor search results about his alleged sado-masochistic orgy.
...

Taken from: The Guardian.

So if Max gets his way search engines will only be able to show links to sites he approves of.

I fear a ruling in his favour would open the flood gates to mass censorship.

[Damien]

Originally Posted by Fawkes

Taken from: The Guardian.

So if Max gets his way search engines will only be able to show links to sites he approves of.

I fear a ruling in his favour would open the flood gates to mass censorship.

Ok let's be fair here. He isn't requesting to censor the Internet apart from the sites he approves off, he is attempting to get personal information that he feels should be private removed from the search engines so that it doesn't harm his character.

That is a far trickier issue than censorship.

[Gary L]

Most likely.
all searches for MP3s will be shown as major record companies and itunes.
all searches for Warez will be shown as a blank page.
all searches for Pamela Anderson will be shown as old peoples homes

[papa smurf]

Mosley is battling to remove from the internet false and libellous references to an alleged "Nazi-themed" orgy and a News of the World video. He told the inquiry he had taken legal action in 22 countries and ordered the removal of material from 193 websites in Germany.


false and libellous references ?? i thought it was on video

[watzizname]

Originally Posted by Fawkes

Taken from: The Guardian.

So if Max gets his way search engines will only be able to show links to sites he approves of.

I fear a ruling in his favour would open the flood gates to mass censorship.

I think if Max keeps on trying to get his way, the current search results will seem insignificant compared to the kind of search storm this could help generate.

I can see him wishing he'd kept his big mouth shut.. then again, maybe those masochistic tendencies of his are just in overdrive

[Maggy J]

Originally Posted by Damien

Ok let's be fair here. He isn't requesting to censor the Internet apart from the sites he approves off, he is attempting to get personal information that he feels should be private removed from the search engines so that it doesn't harm his character.

That is a far trickier issue than censorship.

Agreed! and I feel he is asking a lot.
I understand his position but I think he should take note of Hugh Grant's attitude in that it's out there and known already.Keeping on about it will keep it in the public domain long after it would have died down.After all Google is not the only search engine.
Besides which it's out there in hard copy versions as well.Is he going to spend all his money rooting out those as well.

[Hugh]

It's called 'the Streisand Effect.....

[Fawkes]

Originally Posted by Damien

Ok let's be fair here. He isn't requesting to censor the Internet apart from the sites he approves off, he is attempting to get personal information that he feels should be private removed from the search engines so that it doesn't harm his character.

That is a far trickier issue than censorship.

Yes, but look at this from the search engines point of view, how you proactively prevent defamatory search results appearing.

Imagine a user searching for information on Max Mosley, Google returns all pages containing his name. If he succeeds in suing them, would they have to exclude all the pages that also contained the key words 'Nazi', 'orgy' and 'sex'.
The problem with this type of approach is it will inevitability also exclude none defamatory content.

I don't personally care what Max Mosley gets up to private, I do care about web censorship.

Courts should decide what is defamatory not search engines.

They already remove links on request.