Can you say "publicity"? Evidently, that's all Jeffrey Toback, a member of the Nassau County (Long Island)
legislature knows. He's suing Google for the children, claiming that the company's
search engine promotes paid ads for child pornography companies [*cough* EVIL!
*cough*].
Naturally, Google says that it is not "the largest and most
efficient facilitator and distributor of child pornography in th world." And that this is just a publicity stunt.
What? No, not really?
Mike from Techdirt
weighs in, explaining that "the law here is extremely clear: a service provider is not directly
responsible for what people do on their platform" and calling the lawsuit "ridiculous" and "a
misunderstanding both of the law and how Google works." Ridiculous it may be, but Jeffrey Toback's name is on
everyone's lips today. Investors evidently agree with Mike; the stock is up
$1.50 in intraday trading, to $396.25.
Google sued 'for the children' in PR campaign by Long Island politico
Posted May 5th 2006 12:30PM by Sarah Gilbert
Filed under: Bad News, Law, Blogs, Google (GOOG)
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