Slashdot Mirror
Google Sued for Allegedly Profiting From Child Porn
skinfaxi writes "Filed in New York, Jeffrey Toback claims Google has made billions by allowing child porn and 'other obscene content' providers to use sponsored links." From the article: "The suit, which claims Google acted negligently and intentionally inflicted emotional distress on the public, requests monetary damages to be determined at trial. It also accuses Google of violating federal statutes relating to child pornography and calls for the court to order that Google cease "advertising, promoting, or distributing" child pornography through its site or otherwise providing any links to such content."
...this is looking a lot like a fishing expedition.
No, it's called business as usual at a big tort firm.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
The real question is whether or not Google is knowingly allowing ads for sites with child pornography. Obviously if they knew about these sites they should have been removed.
I somehow doubt any company would do that since it is a sure way to get in trouble and lose lots of customers. I imagine a few ads may have slipped under the Google radar that looks for this sort of abuse, but if Google has a system in place where people can notify them of these ads and if they take immediate action to remove the ads, then I don't see them as being 'evil'.
The global economy is a great thing until you feel it locally.
The cause isn't just, it's made for personal gain, using "child porn" as the excuse and serves to put future, legitimate concerns of this nature in contempt. Warning bells should come as soon as it was said google made "billions of dollars" off this specific criminal enterprise - propaganda and exaggeration is perhaps tools for the con artist here.
As a free market promoter and anarcho-capitalist, child porn is one grey area that I don't have a good answer to. Slashdot usually has good opinions from either side of the statism coin, and this is one place that I don't doubt that both sides of the pro/anti-government debate can offer some real insight to.
I believe that our governments haven't shown any ability to fix anything they want to -- the unintended consequences of every piece of regulation seem to create preferential treatment for some elite group rather than actually solve any problems, protect those meant to be protected or reduce "crime" as they define it. Drug wars, porn wars, family value wars, oil wars, a War on Everything seems to just make Everything worse.
I think child porn is disgusting, but the victims in this case have never seemed to be helped by the law. Lawsuits by the government that are titled "The People v. Google" seem to never help The People, harm Google, and in the end the lawyers win and the government wins a case that helps it grow in power without having to be any more accountable to those paying the bills in the end.
I'm not a fan of regular porn, either, but I don't really see how anyone can stop something that has an obvious market (including child porn or the odd varieties of porn). As a believer in the Bible, I truly believe that the best way to fix society is one relationship at a time. I've helped a few friends overcome their porn issues as best as I can, by offering my time and love and helping them become accountable to someone (voluntarily). I don't think we can eradicate porn of any kind through the law, and I also believe in people's inherent right to view porn in the privacy of their homes. Is the criminal the person looking at porn, the person making it, or the person who connects the two together? I would have to say that the person who is violated would be the kid, and the perp would be the person making it. Wouldn't it be wiser to go after the real criminal?
Just because there is a black market for something doesn't mean that the person who consumes the black market product is the problem. You can't fix the drug problem by jailing non-violent drug users. You can't fix the problem by jailing non-violent drug dealers. You can only create a fair justice system by prosecuting and jailing people who committed real acts of violence regardless of the reason -- shoot someone (drug war, aggression, whatever) and you've violated someone. Run someone over with your car (drunk, aggression, whatever) and you've violated someone. The base reasoning that "it was over drugs" or "it was because of alcohol" is not a just reason -- it is the violation of the person that was the criminal act, not the base reason behind the violation.
I think the enter War on Child Porn doesn't protect the children, but it does seem to give government more and more power over our lives. If we are to criminalize an act, it should be against the perp of the act and on behalf of a real victim. "John Doe (minor) versus Crazy McCracken (perp)" is the only lawsuit I ever want to see. The People versus lawsuits should be thrown out, and we need to return tort laws to finding a real victim and a real perp.
The problem is that the age at which a child is a child and no longer is a child always changes. People used to marry 12 year old girls. By today's standards, that is still a very young child. Today, 18 is the legal age at which you are no longer a child, but we see more and more early 20's people acting like they are 12. Exactly how young/old do you have to be to be a child anymore?
Click Click Bloody Click PANCAKES!
Isn't child porn illegal? If so, then Google shouldn't be at fault, but the pornographers.
Apparently these people have never seen the huge list of links that Google removes from their search engine due to request/legality. There are literally thousands of links to child porn that they have removed.
If a kiddie cereal is one packed with sugar and marketed to children.
If a kiddie movie is one packed with fart jokes and marketed to children.
Kiddie ride, kiddie menu, etc.
Therefore, kiddie porn must be porn that is marketed to children.
Who needs facts or investigation when you can just launch a lawsuit? I'm betting these guys are hoping for a quick settlement from Google just to make the allegations go away.
I'm hoping that Google fights this.
He didn't even investigate if there was a filter in google already. He didn't investigate his own computer even *having* filtering software. He didn't investigate using filtering software. He didn't think that he might, i don't know, watch where his kids go on the web.
That's great and all, but what does that have to do with the fact that Google is making money off advertisements served on child pornography pages? Pretty much any similar service I know has very strong rules as to content served, and while I have asked Google to revoke accounts that were clearly in error, I have yet to see them take action.
Had this been MSN's (future) advertisement service, this whole place would be crammed with comments about how this is typically MS and why they can't be more like Google.
I'm Rocco. I'm the +5 Funny man.
There are a hell of a lot of differences. However, they do share some traits.
Both democrats and republicans lie, steal, coerce, extort, and slander to further their ideals. They both think they're right all the time and rarely listen to each other. They both care deeply about the welfare of those close to them.
It's the story of human existence. Who would you rather see in power; someone who agrees with your politics and follows your religion but is an idiot, or someone who promotes things you find abhorrent and doesn't share your religious convictions but is relatively smart?
It's just a shame when both sides use the general public's fears and convictions for monetary/political gain or whatever. Which is what i think you were talking about.
sudo killall humans
The problem is that he hasn't offered any proof that they are in fact taking advertising dollars from these people, nor has he offered proof of such an ad at all.
http://www.nassaucountyny.gov/agencies/legis/LD/07 /index.html
I can't find it in my heart to be as level-headed as parent. From CNET:
Langdon pointed to the content policy for Google's AdWords sponsored links service, which broadly prohibits "promotion of child pornography or other non-consensual material." Langdon also noted that Google offers a filtering tool called SafeSearch that aims to block offensive content in search results.
The availability of such tools could mean that the suit may not go far. Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act protects providers and users of an "interactive computer service" from liability if it can be shown that they took good-faith measures to restrict access to obscene material. It also provides that "no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider."
The suit, which claims Google acted negligently and intentionally inflicted emotional distress on the public...
I know it's not really PC, but I hope they have a special room in hell for this guy. He knows what he's doing, and he knows that we know he knows it.
you can have my violent video games when you pry them from my cold, dead hands.
Prime UID Club
Nobody's defending paedophiles ... get over it (and yourself). The guy sponsoring this is a politician.
We're not in China ... the whole "claims Google acted negligently and intentionally inflicted emotional distress on the public" is bullshit, as is the politician behind the lawsuit. Go after the producers. Oh, wait ... that would mean admitting its a job for the police ... so much for an opportunity for wrapping himself in the flag over an apple-pe issue.
Hey, what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander - lets sue the politicians - they're always "acting negligently and intentionally inflicted emotional distress on the public".
Yes, good idea. If there's one thing you can count on child pornographers to do, it's to obey the letter of the law.
Proud neuron in the Slashdot hivemind since 2002.
The charges that I can see being rendered against the spyware company would include: interference with contractual relationships (with the people paying for the real targeted google ads), libel (making it look like google is serving porn), unfair business practices ... and I'm sure that an actual lawyer (of which google probably has many) could come up with some even more interesting causes of action.
Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.