Google Must Pay For Libelous Search Result, Says Court

Do Google search results amount to content that the company "publishes" and is responsible for? One high court in Australia says yes -- and the decision, if unchanged on appeal, could have far-reaching repercussions.

For starters, Google will be forced to pay $200,000 to music promoter Milorad Trkulja, the plaintiff in this case. Trkulja brought the suit in 2009 after Google refused to remove links to sites that claimed, incorrectly, that the promoter has connections to organized crime in Melbourne.

Google's stance, which makes a lot of technological sense and has been approved by other courtrooms around the world, is that it is not a publisher. Its search algorithm points to the…
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