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Iran Threatens Legal Action Against Google For Not Labeling Gulf 'Persian'
New submitter PantherSE writes with an article at CNN about the geopolitical importance of labeling, excerpting thus: "Iran has threatened legal action against Google for not labeling the Persian Gulf on its maps. 'Toying with modern technologies in political issues is among the new measures by the enemies against Iran, (and) in this regard, Google has been treated as a plaything,' Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Thursday, according to state-run Press TV. He added that 'omitting the name Persian Gulf is (like) playing with the feelings and realities of the Iranian nation.'"
Is the Persian Gulf unlabeled? Is it labeled "Gulf" (sounds stupid, but no reason for a lawsuit)? Is it labeled something else?
Oh it's on ____.
- Holy crap, I've got MOD points! Who thought that was a good idea.
Back in Windows 95 you could click on your country on the world map to set the time zone. A border dispute caused complaints to Microsoft and they removed the feature (http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2003/08/22/54679.aspx). This reminds me of that, only sillier.
The Attitude Adjuster, I hate me, you can too.
Have gnu, will travel.
I see this as a political ploy by Iran to show that they have influence outside of their country and can control a US based company with a threat of a lawsuit.
If there is a lawsuit and Iran wins, what do they gain except to change the name of the Gulf to Persian Gulf. But the real question arises, where will the lawsuit be fought if enacted. For if it's in Iran, then Iran is sure to win the favor of judgement, but with no teeth behind the judgement. If it's in the US, a US judge could throw the case out before it ever goes to trial as a frivolous lawsuit.
What would be the purpose for such a lawsuit, other than to waist time and money, or to lord power over people you don't rule?
I was in the Navy, and after the Shah fell and Iran became a thorn in the side of the U.S., we stopped calling it the Persian Gulf and started calling it the Arabian Gulf. It's still called that by the Navy and U.S. Government to this day.
As it's bordered roughly on half by Arabian countries and half by Persian (Iran), there's a strong case for either.
I looked on Google Maps and there isn't a name now, although I don't know if that was that way prior to Iran's actions.
We had a group of people that insisted on using the phrase "Freedom Fries", so I don't think the US is one to talk about what's silly or not.
'omitting the name Persian Gulf is (like) playing with the feelings and realities of the Iranian nation.' - Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast
To which Google replied... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkbabSAvhDg
It used to be right, and then they added in an extra g for some reason. I wrote a message on the Google Maps "support" forum and never got a response. I'd say Mehmanparast just had the same experience that I did, but overreacted a little.
I mean, you'd have to be crazy to actually want to sue, wouldn't you?
--
While Iran trying to take legal action about this is just dumb, why doesn't Google just label it with multiple names or simply show the name based on the location of the client?
Some of the countries on the South shore of the gulf want it to be referred to as the Arabian Gulf. Which pisses off the Iranians (as intended) who prefer to call it the Persian Gulf. Google is avoiding picking sides by leaving it unlabeled.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
I read the headline and had a belly laugh to the point of hurting. What kind of legal action can they really take? I guess they could indict a few Google executives in their Sharia Court of Law which will amount to precisely nothing. In fact, I imagine Sergey Brin is laughing at this too. About the only thing Iran can do is rattle its sabre again to drive oil prices back up over a hundred bucks a barrel.
For once I have to agree with the Ayatollah. I was trying to get from the Gulf of Oman to my golf game in Kuwait, and Google Maps took me around the Cape of Good Hope. I barely had time to grab a cocktail before teeing off.
Google is anti-European! There's no label on the largest lake in Europe, Lake Ladoga!
Or, you know, it could be just a cartographic layout decision, just as the lack of a label on the Persian Gulf is.
this is real life. You can choose not to participate.
Often wrong but never in doubt.
I am Jack9.
Everyone knows me.
I used to work for HP, and the Turkish government threatened to ban our Debian-based thin clients because one of the language options with Kurdish. Apparently, the Turks are so sensitive about the Kurds that even having the language option appear in the list was unacceptable within their country. They refuse to acknowledge the Kurds, so they try to wipe out any evidence within Turkey that they ever existed, past or present.
Just label it "Water". It's all connected anyway.
Google is even more anti-Australian than anti-European! You can't even find the Gulf of Carpentaria on a Google Maps search!
It actually turns out that there is a whole naming dispute over the Persian Gulf: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_Gulf_naming_dispute
There's a bit of a difference between calling something by a silly name, and threatening legal action against someone. I don't recall anyone from the US State Department (equivalent to the Foreign Ministry, I assume) ever mentioning the matter, much less threatening anyone who avoided the matter by just calling them "fries."
Though I do wonder: legal action? What are they going to sue Google for? The closet thing I can think of is lack of trademark attribution, which is still light years away from being applicable.
"The Greens lynched a hacker in Chicago. Last month, but I think the body's still hanging from the old Water Tower."
This is stupid..it'd been the Persian Gulf for a long time, why change it. It'd be like people demanding we change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to "Gulf of Texas".
It's a freaking body of water that everyone uses..can we just label the thing the Persian Gulf and move on to more important issues?
Oh, the many ways to provoke a nationalist!
I used to hang out on the Google translate forum. Every week there would be some loony nationalist who was deeply offended that
* His language was not implemented (Turks, mostly)
* His language was not implemented to his satisfaction (Lithuanians in particular. "Our language is the most complex in the world!")
* An "enemy" language was implemented ("Macedonian is not a language! It is a dialect of Bulgarian!" - said by Greeks)
* Their national anthem inexplicably got the words "God Save The Queen" inserted into them (an Irishman, memorably)
* etc.
In any case, the only explanation which they would accept was a deep conspiracy at Google to taunt and slight their proud nations.
xkcd is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
In what court is Iran going so sue Google? Does Google have a presence in Iran? Or are they going to send lawyers over to the Great Satan and file in their jurisdiction? That would be hilarious -- country has feelings hurt by multinational company.
If I look on google Maps, Tibet is labelled as Tibet ... not the "northern resource area" or whatever China calls it. I still refer to it as Burma, not Myanmar.
And therein lies the rub ... countries don't have feelings. Getting all butt-hurt because the rest of the world won't label things to match what you want them to is childish and petulant ... but I guess that's pretty much Iran's foreign policy.
The Foreign Ministry spokesman has a tiny penis, and a brain to match.
I'd kind of like to see Sasha Baron Cohen as the Dictator simply reading the public statements which have come out of Iran over the last several years -- that would be bloody hilarious. Or, totally indistinguishable from the real thing.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
What sort of legal action, exactly, can you take against somebody for making a map that hurts your feelings?
I've never heard of any legal success in the US on those grounds(though PR concerns certainly motivate companies to tread lightly) and under the present US sanctions, Google is unlikely to be officially operating within Iran at all(given the SSL MiTM incident a while back, there are obviously Iranians using Google services; but the sanctions make it rather unlikely that Google would choose to site any official branch offices there), so it hardly matters whether Iran has a rule against hurting their feelings in the process of mapping.
They should change their name from IRAN to IRAA. Then we would be scared of their threats. Next thing North KORAA will be taking legal action against the New York Times for referring to them as a "Stalinist dictatorship " [1.]
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/02/international/asia/02CND-KORE.html?ex=1380513600&en=a29d7f1e49aabee0&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND
My suggestion for Google,
Searches for "Persian Gulf" on Google.ir are going to return:
"Did you mean: 'How to violently overthrow an idiotic, oppressive regime'?"
Don't just game, Dungeoneer
"Persian Gulf" It may not be labeled but that term certainly works.
"The spokesperson would not name any other specific areas that are not labeled."
In related news, the members of the band "America" have issued a press release declining to give the name of the horse in the song "A Horse With No Name".
-- Terry
Unless you're just looking for a fight, getting all pissy about it first isn't the best way to get what you want.
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Well, I doubt that the factions could agree on anything, but I think, in the interests of providing information, Google could place both Persian Gulf and Arabian Gulf in the same part of the ocean. The labels are somewhat meaningless anyway since there is in truth only 1 ocean on the planet.
Ray Seyfarth, ray.seyfarth@gmail.com, http://rayseyfarth.blogspot.com
Shame on you Google! Political division has nothing to do with politics, even though the words share the same root.
Just because we don't like their current islamist regime, doesn't mean they aren't right w.r.t. the name of the Gulf. It has been "Persian Gulf" for most of the History, and Google really ought to respect that. Now, suing Google is pretty pointless, if Iran doesn't have diplomatic ties with the US, but that's another story altogether.
cpghost at Cordula's Web.
The White House, Department of Defense, the State department and the CIA beg to differ.
The Department of Defense says "Navy Looks to Bolster Capabilities in Persian Gulf" (2012):
http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=67586
The State Department notes in a briefing by Secretary of State Clinton on her visit to India in May 2012 that peace in the Persian Gulf is important:
http://translations.state.gov/st/english/texttrans/2012/05/201205085219.html#axzz1vAEAsbH0
The White House's press briefing includes references to carriers in the Persian Gulf (2012):
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/04/09/press-briefing-press-secretary-jay-carney-4912/
This is the CIA's World Fact Book entry for Iran. Look at the map saying "Persian Gulf".
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ir.html
The State Department shows the same map for Iran ("Persian Gulf"):
http://www.state.gov/p/nea/ci/ir/
The CIA's Persian Gulf War Task Force was last reviewed and updated in January 2012.
https://www.cia.gov/library/reports/general-reports-1/gulfwar/index.htm
Please Google, please please please, label it the Persian Gulf.
Everything that is Persia pre-dates Islam and shows that Persia was great without the help of Allah.
Long before the mullahs Persia ruled most of the civilised world in the west, with the mullahs its a bit player in a sideshow.
Everything Persian undermines the regime in Tehran, so...
Please Google, please please please, label it the Persian Gulf. And call the middle east "greater Persia", and Afghanistan Inland Persia, and Tehran the Persian Capital, and Iran the Persian Empire.
Also, can we sell Greece back to Persia? They wanted it a while back and its really no use to us anymore?
In Iran? Non-Iranian websites are already blocked in Iran, so it's not like people in Iran will see it on Google Maps. And it's the Iranians won't in a US court. Maybe France since the French don't like American companies.
What are they afraid of? That people are going to call it the Israeli gulf?
Get a grip, psychos.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
Oh wow, I'd forgotten about that. It really was the dumbest thing ever, but it was good for a giggle at the time.
Funny how history puts a less humorous, embarrassing patina on it.
technically, they're wrong. they assert that the the label was removed. this is false. the label was never put there to begin with. and it was never put there to begin with precisely to avoid the stupid, childish bickering over the term persian vs arabian. iran's diplomats should be tried under sharia law for wasting allah's time. if it were my maps, i'd make the label say Gulf of Fucktard Politics.
insensitive clod overlords obligatory xkcd car analogy russian reversals whoosh pedant fanbois ftfy in 3...2...1..PROFIT
cool story bro.
insensitive clod overlords obligatory xkcd car analogy russian reversals whoosh pedant fanbois ftfy in 3...2...1..PROFIT
did they have a guy who discovered how to harness electricity with a key tied to a kite? cuz this story sounds familiar.
insensitive clod overlords obligatory xkcd car analogy russian reversals whoosh pedant fanbois ftfy in 3...2...1..PROFIT
They could just label it the "Gulf of Google".
The algorithm that picks the place names shown in Google Maps uses population as an input. So the prominent places in Rio de Janeiro are all the slums - Favela Moreira Pinto, Favela Pedra Lisa, Favela Rato ("Rat Town")... Compare this tourist-oriented map, which emphasizes the beaches, parks, and museums. There's been some whining about this from the Rio tourism authorities, but Google didn't change anything.
Who disputes it? The Koreans? The Chinese? China doesn't border any part of that Sea. Russia does, but they have plenty of seas that they could rename the Sea of Russia. Only ones I can think of are the Koreans, but had there been no Japan, there would have been no sea - it would simply have been a part of the Pacific Ocean, just like the sea west of LA.
Yellow Sea is already the Sea b/w Korea and China, so it would have to be renamed West Yellow Sea, and Sea of Japan would have to be renamed East Yellow Sea. Note that there are already 2 Sea of Chinas - the East China Sea and the South China Sea. Maybe merge Yellow Sea and East China Sea and rename the combination to Sea of China, and rename South China Sea as IndoChina Sea, since it's b/w Vietnam, Philippines, Taiwan, and China.
they can win in any court in the world... LOL
Grar II
je plussoie !