We wrote previously about a ruling by the European Union with regards to the “right to be forgotten”. Now a Canadian court has ordered Google to remove sites worldwide.
Amy Gesenhues covered the story on Search Engine Land, from the article:
On the heels of Europe’s “Right to Be Forgotten” ruling, a British Columbia court in Canada has ruled Google must block a group of websites worldwide.
The case was opened by industrial networking devices manufacturer Equustek Solutions, Inc. to block a network of websites it claims are owned by former associates who stole trade secrets to illegally manufacture and sell competing products.
According to a report from the The Globe and Mail, a temporary injunction against Google was issued last Friday in spite of Google’s protests that Canadian courts had no jurisdiction over the Mountain View, California based search engine.
The BC court ruling is forcing Google to move websites worldwide so that they would not be searchable from any country.
In an email, a Google spokesperson told Search Engine Land, “We’re disappointed in this ruling and will appeal this decision to the British Columbia Court of Appeals, BC’s highest court.”
Read the full story here
One important thing to understand about the European Union ruling was that a site would still be accessible from Google.com. Barry Schwartz wrote back on June 10,
Google told us that the removals won’t pull a URL out of Google worldwide, that it only will impact the EU based results. So if you get content removed via the form, if you search in the EU, that content will not be found, but if you search in the U.S. or most other non EU based countries, that content will be found.
For example, say someone from the United Kingdom puts in a request that’s approved. The URL will be dropped out of Google UK, in that person’s home country. But it will also be dropped out of Google France, Google Germany, Google Spain and other versions of Google for individual EU countries.
In contrast, the URL would not be dropped from Google.com. Anyone going to Google.com, whether in the U.S. or EU, will still see the URLs. Removals will only be done from the EU versions.
Read the full story here
So this seems like Google is going to keep finding ways to challenge rulings and frustrate users even if they believe they won a landmark case.
