An appeals court in Argentina ruled in favor of Yahoo Inc. and Google Inc. in a case claiming the companies were liable for including sex-related Web sites in the search results for Argentinean celebrity Virginia Da Cunha, The New York Times reported.
Although a New York personal injury lawyer could explain how defamation is handled by the courts works in this country, the law likely varies somewhat in Argentina.
The lower court found the two Internet search companies liable for defaming Virginia Da Cunha and ordered them to pay damages and remove the disputed sites from their indexes. But the 2-1 appeals court ruling said Yahoo and Google could be held liable for defaming the entertainer only if they knew about the illegal content and did nothing to remove it.
But this case is far from over, as one of Virginia Da Cunha's attorneys said he plans to appeal the case to the Argentine Supreme Court.
And this was just one of roughly 130 or more similar Argentinean cases going back four years. Each of the cases alleges defamation and seeks content removal, including Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Yesica Toscanini and soccer star Diego Maradona. Only two of the cases have been decided so far, although the story doesn't give details.
Various injunctions against the companies for these defamation cases have been upheld until the determination of liability.
But while Google maintains that it can't possibly comply with such broad injunctions, Yahoo said it can comply with the injunctions only if it blocks all Web sites containing a reference to the given plaintiff (which it has done in order to comply).
Rob Faris of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School said the Argentinean cases are unique:
"This is a unique situation in Argentina. I know of no other examples in which the search of an individual is completely blocked."
Defamation is a broad area of civil law intended to protect individuals' reputations from false statements or assertions. Ask a New York personal injury attorney for more details.
Related Resources:
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Google In the Middle of Another Defamation Suit (FindLaw's Injured Blog)
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