Google Fights against Canada's Order to Change Global Search Results

Megalith

Megalith

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Canada’s Supreme Court put the smackdown on Google back in June when it ruled that the tech giant must take down certain results for pirated products not only in America’s hat, but worldwide. The search giant is pushing back on this “repugnant” ruling by filing an injunction with the US District Court, arguing that globally removing the search results violates US law.

…Google is hoping to find a loophole on American soil by arguing this violates the First Amendment. “We’re taking this court action to defend the legal principle that one country shouldn’t be able to decide what information people in other countries can access online,” says David Price, senior product counsel at Google. “Undermining this core principle inevitably leads to a world where internet users are subject to the most restrictive content limitations from every country.”
 
Extreme fascism. One country trying to force their laws upon the rest of the world. If these other countries are successful, then whose to say that we may have to follow the laws of the country of the least common denominator. All countries forced to a level like that of North Korea.
 
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I actually support Google on this one, and that's a pretty damned rare thing for me to do.
 
I'm a little confused on this. Google is going to US courts and complaining that Canadian supreme court can't do this? What can US courts do?
 
serpretetsky said:
I'm a little confused on this. Google is going to US courts and complaining that Canadian supreme court can't do this? What can US courts do?
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Simply put, it's gotten political. Canada's supreme court has made a decision forcing Google to limit search results for not just Canadians - Everyone. How do you feel about Canadian lawmakers effecting your search results down south of the border? That's what I thought.. ;)

Blame Canada!

I'm from Canada btw.. don't blame me, like personally.. or anything like that. haha
 
Maybe Google needs to completely pull out of Canada. Block all Canadian IPs, close up any physical presence they have there. Canada is trying to set a precedent, maybe this is what it needs to be.
 
While they're at it, maybe Canada can tell North Korea to play nice. And also stop piracy once and for all.
 
NeghVar said:
Extreme fascism. One country trying to force their laws upon the rest of the world. If these other countries are successful, then whose to say that we may have to follow the laws of the country of the least common denominator. All countries forced to a level like that of North Korea.
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You're missing the </s> there, mate, considering that the US is the most ornary about extending its IP laws into other countries just to protect a US company's mouse!
 
arnemetis said:
Maybe Google needs to completely pull out of Canada. Block all Canadian IPs, close up any physical presence they have there. Canada is trying to set a precedent, maybe this is what it needs to be.
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That would be quite expensive for Google. Give up all revenue streams from Canada now, and into the future, over a counterfeit product search result block? You're not in a position of making substantial monetary decisions, are you? :D
 
Madoc said:
I actually support Google on this one, and that's a pretty damned rare thing for me to do.
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Why? Are you Canadian? Google doesn't own or host the content. It should be up to the ISP or whatever to come down on the perp, not the provider of directions to get there. What's next, blackouts on Atlas and maps because of locations of criminal activity?

arnemetis said:
Maybe Google needs to completely pull out of Canada. Block all Canadian IPs, close up any physical presence they have there. Canada is trying to set a precedent, maybe this is what it needs to be.
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If they didn't pull out of China they're not pulling out of Canadiastan. Some Canadian corporation would love that though and there's probably one waiting in the wings to fill the gap.
 
vr. said:
Why? Are you Canadian? Google doesn't own or host the content. It should be up to the ISP or whatever to come down on the perp, not the provider of directions to get there. What's next, blackouts on Atlas and maps because of locations of criminal activity?
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You didn't read the article did you? Canada came down on the seller of the counterfeit product, who then just fled Canada and continued to sell the product elsewhere. Google complied with Canada's court order to block search results on google.ca, but then Canada's court forced them to do so globally. That's getting a little out of their jurisdiction, isn't it? Shouldn't that be up to US courts to determine if they want those search results blocked in their country? But therein lies the underlining issue of the story. What kind of internet are we going to end up having? One with a heavy amount of censorship because of multiple country demands to remove content, or an internet heavily regionalized (China firewall).

I say fuck it, I'm going darknet..
 
sboucher said:
That would be quite expensive for Google. Give up all revenue streams from Canada now, and into the future, over a counterfeit product search result block? You're not in a position of making substantial monetary decisions, are you? :D
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I most certainly am not, I hate sales! Maybe I forgot the /s. Maybe I was being semi serious? Anyway, Google is all about the money, so no, they wouldn't do this. Why not just block stuff and move on, why make a fuss? Only thing I can think of, is because this move would COST them money, and a large amount I'm guessing, to comply with the requests now and in the future. So they are fighting it to protect themselves. They really don't want the precedent of what one country requires of them must apply globally.
 
I don't understand the point of trying to fight foreign censorship laws. Just abide with a region specific result, outright refuse and eat popcorn, or pull out the particular service (which is quite unlikely).

As a Canadian, I think our supreme court ruling on this is completely ridiculous.
 
velusip said:
I don't understand the point of trying to fight foreign censorship laws. Just abide with a region specific result, outright refuse and eat popcorn, or pull out the particular service (which is quite unlikely).

As a Canadian, I think our supreme court ruling on this is completely ridiculous.
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It's not unprecedented. Remember the news blackout for, I think, the Homolka murder case? Canadian broadcasters had to abide by the stupid thing despite the fact every Canadian has access to US news (and the Internet). The judge got pissy about anyone discussing it on social media as well.
 
So after actually reading the article, they are targeting one company illegally manufacturing another companies products that fled Canada when legal action was taken and they subsequently set up shop overseas.

Basically, they want Google to police this company because they can't find a way to do it otherwise.

This is incorrect. I feel for the company, but they have to pursue legal action via the scam company's current country.

It's prob China though, so they are fucked, enter Google.
 
sboucher said:
That would be quite expensive for Google. Give up all revenue streams from Canada now, and into the future, over a counterfeit product search result block? You're not in a position of making substantial monetary decisions, are you? :D
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That would depend on what the fine is for not complying each country's privacy laws. Countries such as Spain, German, France, and Italy are constantly fining Google because Google is not enforcing each country's privacy laws globally. So, what would cost us more? Blocking that country from all of Google's services or eating the fines?
giphy.webp
 
sboucher said:
You didn't read the article did you? Canada came down on the seller of the counterfeit product, who then just fled Canada and continued to sell the product elsewhere. Google complied with Canada's court order to block search results on google.ca, but then Canada's court forced them to do so globally. That's getting a little out of their jurisdiction, isn't it? Shouldn't that be up to US courts to determine if they want those search results blocked in their country? But therein lies the underlining issue of the story. What kind of internet are we going to end up having? One with a heavy amount of censorship because of multiple country demands to remove content, or an internet heavily regionalized (China firewall).

I say fuck it, I'm going darknet..
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Yes I read. Though based on your reply I'm not entirely sure if you're responding to the right poster?

I don't support either nation to demand Google censor search results. Google's just indexing information. If the nations want the problem to go away, use Google's information to knock out the criminal.
 
I recently read somewhere that there is a torrent like web search engine project that is installed locally that is updated daily or a few times a week that will get around this. It's mostly for 'information' related web sites. For example if you have a favorite web site and it's taken down from search engines then this project would remedy that issue. Something to that effect. I forget the name of the project. It's from overseas somewhere.

a few megs of compressed data can hold several hundred thousand websites if not more.

I also think there are a few web sites that maintain lists for websites that have been taken down by google you can still access and use.
 
This is just like the us government trying to subpoena data from another country's server, they say they're allowed to do that. If so then the canadian government can also force google to remove google links worldwide.
Obviously i don't think a country has any right to do something like that, the us and canada don't have world wide jurisdiction and should fuck off.
 
Here's the reason Google has to play by Canadian rules, even when serving information not in Canada;

Imagine google is nothing more than a corner bookstore. They have a library of various books, with a few titles on objectionable/illegal material by Canada law. We'll keep it simple, we'll say books on underwater basket weaving for example. If Google removes the offending books but continues to offer them at their other bookstores in the USA then any Canadian resident could still gain access to the material. They could ask the attendant at the front desk to order them a copy. Or read it aloud over the phone. Point is Canadian citizens are still privy to the same information even though they arent in that branch's bookstore.

If Google wants to continue to operate a bookstore in Canada then they have to abide by all of Canada's laws. Google is free to close that bookstore so they can continue serving whatever material they want in the USA, but guess what... someone else is eagerly awaiting to open their own competing bookstore in Canada that would have been crushed by the competition before, but will thrive without Google's presence, and they are more than happy to censor all the material and have only gov't approved reading.
 
vr. said:
Yes I read. Though based on your reply I'm not entirely sure if you're responding to the right poster?

I don't support either nation to demand Google censor search results. Google's just indexing information. If the nations want the problem to go away, use Google's information to knock out the criminal.
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Actually, it seems like *you* didn't read my post, or you somehow interpreted it to mean exactly the opposite of what I actually said. Please read it again.
 
nysmo said:
Here's the reason Google has to play by Canadian rules, even when serving information not in Canada;

Imagine google is nothing more than a corner bookstore. They have a library of various books, with a few titles on objectionable/illegal material by Canada law. We'll keep it simple, we'll say books on underwater basket weaving for example. If Google removes the offending books but continues to offer them at their other bookstores in the USA then any Canadian resident could still gain access to the material. They could ask the attendant at the front desk to order them a copy. Or read it aloud over the phone. Point is Canadian citizens are still privy to the same information even though they arent in that branch's bookstore.

If Google wants to continue to operate a bookstore in Canada then they have to abide by all of Canada's laws. Google is free to close that bookstore so they can continue serving whatever material they want in the USA, but guess what... someone else is eagerly awaiting to open their own competing bookstore in Canada that would have been crushed by the competition before, but will thrive without Google's presence, and they are more than happy to censor all the material and have only gov't approved reading.
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So since marijuana is illegal in the US, Amsterdam should ban it? Things are illegal only because some hotshot lawmaker made it so, it doesn't mean they're actually bad for you. Why don't these lawmakers also ban alcohol and cigarettes, these cause cancer and deaths... oh wait they're taxed, so easy money.
 
dali71 said:
Not surprising coming from the country that can fine or imprison its citizens for using the wrong gender pronouns. Seriously, fuck Canada.
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Yeah fuck one of our biggest allies. FUCK EM.
Jk Love Canada and what country has not had a weird court case.
 
Sooo... how is this different from copyright infringement sites being pulled from google's database? Its actually EXACTLY the same. So what's the problem? The website in question has been found guilty of selling stolen software in a court of law.
 
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I'm wondering how this challenge would legally work since Google already complies in the US with blocking search results via the DMCA which would presumably mean the 1st amendment argument already failed in the US with respect to copyright infringement.
 
dali71 said:
Not surprising coming from the country that can fine or imprison its citizens for using the wrong gender pronouns. Seriously, fuck the Canadian government.
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On a weekly basis I see something in the news that makes me say, "we live in a weird country." And that's about the extent of it. Show some restraint, because there is literally no haven of sensible people in the world.
 
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