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Woman wins 12-year legal battle against Google

abc.net.au

191–200 of 220 posts

Re: Woman wins 12-year legal battle against Google

#191
post #114
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a few people pursue a lawsuit against them I'm pretty sure they'll get more responsive. TBH Google is notoriously awful to communicate with - I don't know if you've ever dealt with one of their B2B products but they even hate talking to companies that pay them 10k a year.

The civil lawsuit by individual victims won't be effective. If it does, Alphabet and other US-based tech companies should have been behaved better decades ago. For them, this civil case means nothing. Think about it. Are you and all the people you know going to boycott Alphabet just for this particular civil case? No way. The better solution is make a regulation which makes Alphabet and its boards criminal if they ig…

I agree with you, regulation would be better. But much like the alcohol and tobacco industries tech corporations spend millions in funds on lobbying US lawmakers to avoid being forced to accept government regulation. Also my case actually has done some good. Someone contacted me to say because of it her lawyers were able to get content malicious content removed posted by an ex partner. Over the years I have been contacted by quite a few people who have said the same thing.

Re: Woman wins 12-year legal battle against Google

#192
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But how can you notify Google of anything? Even when you report an important bug, bots and "product experts" just shrug it off. The only "notification" for Google is a lawsuit it seems.

Someone could make Google more responsive by publishing a guide on how to sue Google while representing yourself. Some basic information about court procedure and submissions, and a guide to the relevant law, such as defamation, would let a thousand litigants bloom, and Google would soon have a very real problem on their hands. Most likely you'd get Google's attention at the first step, and a probably solution.

That's a good idea.

Re: Woman wins 12-year legal battle against Google

#193

https://globalfreedomofexpression.columbia.edu/cases/duffy-v... has some actual details of what this is about.

> Dr. Duffy posted a web report on the website “Ripoff Report” complaining about her dissatisfaction with the services she had received from the psychics on the Kasamba site. She also commented on the reports of others about the psychics. She created a chat group “kasambavictims” on Yahoo. Dr. Duffy also posted messages under a pseudonym, and began to email the site complaining that her friend’s wife had committed su…

I'd like to clarify if I may. Firstly, thank you for you comments. I indeed did get scammed at a time when I was going through a very bad depression which actually had a physiological cause. I thought the website Ripoff Report was a legitimate complaint website. In fact, there are hundreds of complaints about Kasamba (and under its previous name 'Liveperson)on both Ripoff Report and other websites. I started a support group for others who were scammed. It is not a crime to for vulnerable people to be scammed - people lose millions each year to scams. The defamatory content about me was written to try and stop the support group. Kasamba 'experts' were scamming vulnerable people of thousands of dollars.

I had 18 days to prepare for the first trial and no idea what I was doing. A friend did commit suicide but I couldn't obtain any evidence. The court can only rule on the evidence before it and I had no idea what I was doing in a court room in which I was alone and facing a bank of highly paid lawyers. In the second trial (2022) I had a witness from the support group to say that someone did commit suicide but she was terrified that the Google lawyers would know her name because they previously distributed legal documents about a friend of mine to techdirt.com.

I did not know it at the time but Ripoff Report is an extortion racket. Evidence supporting this from the US courts was put into my recent liability judgement. In fact, how it operates is that the website publishes often false content and then charges tens of thousands of dollars to remove it. A 2023 judgement found that it charges USD$5,500 to remove a link https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-casd-3_22-cv-00...

There are a number of other cases, for example, https://casetext.com/case/xcentric-ventures-llc-v-borodkin-7 in which the court has upheld the extortive business practices.

I could not sue Ripoff Report because of section 230 of the communications decency act and the speech act of 2010. I only filed proceedings because I thought it would result in removal. I was wrong and Google decided to use me as an example and refuse to 'mediate'. I just wanted it removed but google decided it would try to bully me into going away rather than mediate or remove it properly.

This is the latest 2023 decision on liability.https://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/sa/SASC/...

This is the second liability

Re: Woman wins 12-year legal battle against Google

#194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Dr. Duffy posted a web report on the website “Ripoff Report” complaining about her dissatisfaction with the services she had received from the psychics on the Kasamba site. She also commented on the reports of others about the psychics. She created a chat group “kasambavictims” on Yahoo. Dr. Duffy also posted messages under a pseudonym, and began to email the site complaining that her friend’s wife had committed su…

I find it amusing that I feel no empathy at all to ANYONE involved in this case. The "psychics" are just low-life scammers that prey on the stupid/mentally ill, and things like this case are bound to happen to them from time to time. Google is Google, everything that makes the evil tech lords suffer a little bit is a plus for mankind. And this woman seems to be just an insufferable crazy cat lady, so good riddance to…

I'd rather be 'an insufferable cat lady' who stands up for her rights than an asshole - lol!

Re: Woman wins 12-year legal battle against Google

#195
post #12

Not a single scrap of information about the facts of the case. We should just infer that Google are evil and did something wrong that they deserve to pay for.

As far as I can tell, the problem is that google surfaced posts claiming she was a stalker, when she merely lied about a psychic having caused her friend to commit suicide in posts about that psychic. Or something.

please see my comments above

Re: Woman wins 12-year legal battle against Google

#196

There’s a difference between “settles” and “wins”. Sounds like they settled, but then they talk like she won…

Actually, I won on liability in two trials - 2015 and 2023. Damages were to be adjudicated separately because I was self represented and simply couldn't cope with doing a complete trial against Google's two law firms. This is the second liability decision if you are interested.

https://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/sa/SASC/...

Re: Woman wins 12-year legal battle against Google

#197

I'm just wondering how the Google internal legal dept handled this for 12 years. I'm imagining they called it the Duffy file and gave it to interns every year. Or maybe assigned it personnel with low annual reviews. "Dave, we're giving you the Duffy case until you get your numbers up."

lol-actually Google engaged outside law firms that made millions of dollars in legal costs - in the end they just wanted me to go away - lol - so they settled for 'appropriate' compensation BUT left the liability intact.

Re: Woman wins 12-year legal battle against Google

#198

Seems to be about Google making something from "Ripoff Report" available, on which were defamatory statements about the plaintiff. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripoff_Report An interesting business model, to be sure... And a clash of two legal regimes, one in which Ripoff Report can operate and another in which Google can be sued for indexing / linking to them. It's like, pick your poison...

i find it mindboggling that criminal records are so accessible in the US - so that something like ripoff report is a legal business there does not surprise me in the least

it is profiting from shame and enabled by Google - please see my above comments for examples from US courts

Re: Woman wins 12-year legal battle against Google

#200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

nah she won and did a great service to her fellow human beings. this was not lost or wasted time. people spend decades on far more "useless" things - not that there is anything wrong with that

> she won and did a great service to her fellow human beings She didn't win, they settled out of court. The article definitely does its best to avoid mentioning even a single detail about the case beyond the outcome, and even that it misconstrues. Dr. Duffy left a bad review for some psychics on the site "RipOff Report" and lied about her friend’s wife committing suicide due to bad advice given by the psychics. A few…

I made law and because of it others, for example people whose ex partners take revenge online (at least in common law countries) have recourse against global and potentially permanent reputation and personal damage that impacts upon their families and livelihoods as well them.

I did get ripped off but if you do some research so did hundreds of others. People lose millions every year to internet scams. This IS an scam website. I formed a support group and the defamatory content was published to stop the support group.

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