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Google Must Delete Search Results Worldwide, Supreme Court of Canada Rules (fortune.com)

Posted by msmash on from the setting-prededent dept.

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled against Google on Wednesday in a closely-watched intellectual property case over whether judges can apply their own country's laws to all of the internet. From a report: In a 7-2 decision, the court agreed a British Columbia judge had the power to issue an injunction forcing Google to scrub search results about pirated products not just in Canada, but everywhere else in the world too. Those siding with Google, including civil liberties groups, had warned that allowing the injunction would harm free speech, setting a precedent to let any judge anywhere order a global ban on what appears on search engines. The Canadian Supreme Court, however, downplayed this objection and called Google's fears "theoretical." "This is not an order to remove speech that, on its face, engages freedom of expression values, it is an order to de-index websites that are in violation of several court orders. We have not, to date, accepted that freedom of expression requires the facilitation of the unlawful sale of goods," wrote Judge Rosalie Abella.

10 of 271 comments (clear)

  1. Delete all references to Canada by jfdavis668 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Google should delete all references to Canada. Wipe them off the face of the map. Blame Canada!

    1. Re:Delete all references to Canada by Kierthos · · Score: 5, Funny

      Blame who?

      --
      Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
  2. Horrifying by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is quite horrifying. If Canada thinks that Canadian courts can order Google to delete results everywhere in the world, then the same argument says Chinese courts can order Google to delete results everywhere in the world.

    --
    http://www.geoffreylandis.com
    1. Re:Horrifying by petes_PoV · · Score: 5, Interesting
      The USA already enforces its laws on the RoW, so it's reasonable for any other country to do the same.

      The US decided on its own that any data which touches american soil is subject to american laws. This has been tested in the financial world where transactions that were legal in the country they took place were "bounced" in and out of the USA and the yanks deemed that they therefore were subject to their laws, which did not allow that activity to be legal.

      The individuals in question were extradited to the US, and such is the extreme cost to defendants to produce witnesses and to support a lawsuit - esp. against the federal government and even more so when all those witnesses are from another country (and therefore have to be transported and accommodated at the defendants' expense for the duration of the trial), that they were unable to defend themselves and had to plea bargain a jail sentence.

      Look up the Natwest three
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      --
      politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
    2. Re:Horrifying by Baloroth · · Score: 4, Informative

      They're not ordering Google to delete results everywhere in the world; just on systems under their control. Which ends up being on the exact same servers they deleted the results for Canada (since google.ca and google.com are the same systems).

      This is precisely what is not happening. Google is in fact being ordered to delete the search results in all their servers, worldwide, not just on the servers that serve Canada (which just about everyone agrees falls within Canada's legal authority). That is, in fact, the entire point of the news story. I can understand not reading the story, but not even reading the headline? Even for slashdot that's impressive.

      Anyways, yes, the news story is correct: Canada is claiming the power to order Google to globally de-index web sites in response to a court order.

      --
      "None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
    3. Re:Horrifying by Anubis+IV · · Score: 4, Informative

      Google could say they deleted the listings. As long as there is no way to access those listings from Canada, they would be compliant.

      Not true. Read the article. It specifically says that for Google to comply, they need to de-index the listing globally. The court was very specific in how Google was to implement the injunction against it.

      you should consider the intent of the court.

      For the sake of argument let's consider it. Straight from the horse's mouth, the stated purpose of the case was to decide...

      Whether Google can be ordered [...] to globally de-index websites of distributor [...] — Whether Supreme Court of British Columbia had jurisdiction to grant injunction with extraterritorial effect

      In other words, they explicitly set out to rule on whether the injunction against Google could apply "extraterritorially" (i.e. beyond the court's authority), and they decided that it could. There was nothing accidental or incidental about the ruling applying internationally. It was neither the side effect you've claimed it was, nor, as you just suggested, was it left to Google to choose how to implement the injunction against them.

      Does the fact that they made it clear they knew they were imposing their laws outside their borders have any effect on your thinking?

  3. Jurisdiction? by marcle · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It would seem Canada's court is claiming global jurisdiction. I think quite a few governments would have a problem with that.

  4. So Canada agrees with the U.S. by Solandri · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The Canadian Supreme Court, however, downplayed this objection and called Google's fears "theoretical." "This is not an order to remove speech that, on its face, engages freedom of expression values, it is an order to de-index websites that are in violation of several court orders. We have not, to date, accepted that freedom of expression requires the facilitation of the unlawful sale of goods," wrote Judge Rosalie Abella.

    So Canada agrees with the U.S. that Canadian pharmacies illegally selling prescription drugs to Americans should be de-indexed from Google worldwide.

    Whether this is a free speech or an illegal trade is irrelevant and a straw man. The key issue is whether another country can apply their laws in your country. Maybe considering a case with Canada on the benefiting end of the "illegal" trade might give the judges some perspective.

  5. Google Must Delete Blasphemy Worldwide by swm · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Google Must Delete Blasphemy Worldwide, Supreme Court of Sumeria Rules

    The Sumerian Supreme Court, however, downplayed this objection and called Google's fears "theoretical." "This is not an order to remove speech that, on its face, engages freedom of expression values, it is an order to de-index websites that are in violation of several court orders. We have not, to date, accepted that freedom of expression requires the facilitation of blasphemy against the most terrible name of Gozer (all cower in her presence)," wrote Judge Vinz Clortho.

  6. The papers are puffing it up as hard as they can by davecb · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's a temporary restraining order against a company that fled BC to, perhaps, France, and is selling stolen networking technology. It's not an attempt to censor someone's opinions, but to hunt down a thief.

    There is tons of non-puff-pirce commentary, though:

    and also two dissenting opinions from the judges in the case, available to everyone at https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/s... where they question how long it should apply.

    I'm also pleased to note that one of the first steps cited by the court, in 2017 scc 34, was an injunction "issued by the Supreme Court of British Columbia ordering D to cease operating or carrying on business through any website."

    This is a great improvement, IMHO, over cases in the EU where Google was ordered to cease indexing sites which were not similarly ordered to cease their actions.

    --dave

    --
    davecb@spamcop.net