1. "Don't Be Evil,"
a brief history of Google
and case law
April 27, 2009
Mike Tigas

2. Google
● Started as a search engine project by two
Stanford Ph.D. students in 1996. (Sergey Brin
and Larry Page.)
● Incorporated as Google, Inc. in 1998.
● Currently the most visited Web site on the
Internet, according to Alexa.
● Worth over $31 billion, according to Google.

3. Google
● Search technology led to other products:
– AdWords/AdSense
– Gmail
– Google News
– Google Maps
– Google Desktop
– ...and so on

4. What’s the big deal?
● “Caching” and archiving of information.
– Users can view a “cached” snapshot of a page
as it appeared when Google last saw it.
– Google Book Search allows full-text searching
of public domain and copyrighted books.
● Privacy
– “Google knows everything”
– What do you get when you Google your name?
– Do you know what Google keeps track of when
you use it’s search engine?

5. Field v. Google, Inc. (2006)
● Blake Field, attorney and author.
● Claimed copyright infringement against Google,
citing unauthorized copying and distribution of
his works. (In Google’s cache.)
● Google uses Web standards for excluding sites
from searching and caching.
● Field knew about this beforehand.

6. Field v. Google, Inc. (2006)
● Court ruled:
● Field granted Google implied license to cache
his work because he was aware of exclusion
methods but let it happen anyway.
● Google’s use was fair use: caching material for
the search service is a transformative work.
● Field was also publishing his material for free,
so Google did not directly cause him loss.
● Google, as provider of a search service, is
protected under the DMCA “safe harbor”
copyright provisions.

7. Gonzales v. Google, Inc. (2006)
● Department of Justice subpoenaed several
search engine providers, including Google,
Yahoo, and Microsoft.
● Data to be used for a study on filtering software
and the Child Online Protection Act which was
struck down as a First Amendment violation.
● Google objected to the request
– Request did not demonstrate that data would
lead to admissible evidence.
– The data would place Google’s trade secrets in
the public eye.

8. Parker v. Google, Inc. (2006,2007)
● Author Ray Parker claimed that an anonymous
USENET bulletin board user copied his work
without permission. Google archives USENET
and Parker claimed Google was negligent for
republishing it.
● Parker also claimed that Google invaded his
privacy “by creating an unauthorized biography
of him whenever someone ‘googled’ his name.”
● Finally, Parker claimed defamation due to
Google linking to sites (in search) that portray
him in a negative light.

9. Parker v. Google (2006,2007)
● Field precedent for archives: DMCA protection.
● Google not responsible for third-party material
archived on it’s service.
● Google itself did not “create a biography” or
willfully defame Parker; they only provided a
service to locate material by others.

10. Parker v. Google (2006,2007)
● Field precedent for archives: DMCA protection.
● Google not responsible for third-party material
archived on it’s service.
● Google itself did not “create a biography” or
willfully defame Parker; they only provided a
service to locate material by others.