{"id":1009,"date":"2008-06-10T09:54:38","date_gmt":"2008-06-10T08:54:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/?p=1009"},"modified":"2008-06-10T14:51:43","modified_gmt":"2008-06-10T13:51:43","slug":"google-cache-and-libel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/2008\/06\/google-cache-and-libel\/","title":{"rendered":"Google cache and libel"},"content":{"rendered":"

I<\/span> have been pondering further about Google<\/strong>‘s cache and defamation. Here’s the deal: Google is automatically indexing, copying and storing material in its cache. <\/p>\n

By allowing Google to find your site, and not using the NoArchive meta-tag, you are also giving search engines implied consent to index your site, and index it in such a way that reproduces the whole content.<\/p>\n

The UK 1996 Defamation Act<\/strong><\/a> is pretty ambiguous. Google would appear to be off the hook here:<\/p>\n

1(3) A person shall not be considered the author, editor or publisher of a statement if he is only involved … –<\/p>\n

(c) in processing, making copies of, distributing or selling any electronic medium in or on which the statement is recorded, or in operating or providing any equipment, system or service by means of which the statement is retrieved, copied, distributed or made available in electronic form.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In respect of UK defamation law, Google would argue that it is only making copies of and distributing material that contains a defamatory statement and is therefore not the publisher.<\/p>\n

But then the act also defines “publisher” as:<\/p>\n

a commercial publisher, that is, a person whose business is issuing material to the public, or a section of the public, who issues material containing the statement in the course of that business. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Google would be “publishing” defamatory material held in its cache, since it is making the material available via ad-served search pages.<\/p>\n

You can ask for Google to remove pages from the cache. But does this constitute what the legislation calls “reasonable care in relation to its publication”? Is an automated process exercising “reasonable care”? <\/p>\n

Perhaps the fact that no case has yet come to light means this isn’t an issue we should worry about. Or perhaps more people should ensure that their material doesn’t end up in the cache. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have been pondering further about Google‘s cache and defamation. Here’s the deal: Google is automatically indexing, copying and storing material in its cache. By allowing Google to find your site, and not using the NoArchive meta-tag, you are also giving search engines implied consent to index your site, and index it in such a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[81,270],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","category-news-biz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}