An Argentinian appeal court has overturned a controversial 2008 ruling in which search engines had been made liable for the content of sites to which those search engines provided links in the results to users' search requests. Over 100 legal actions were brought on behalf of celebrities against the likes of Yahoo! and Google. The search engines denied that they were responsible as they did not have a hand in the stories against Maradona and the others. Following the 2008 ruling, Yahoo! blocked every search result that involved the stars, and Google said it could not comply with such a broad injunction. The appeal court's ruling will see the search engines breathing a huge sigh of relief. The search engines will only be liable for the content of third parties if they negligently fail to remove content after being made aware of its illegality. This makes the position a lot more closely aligned to the one under the European Union's Electronic Commerce Directive.
Paul Gershlick, a Partner at Matthew Arnold & Baldwin LLP and editor or Upload-IT, comments: 'This case shows the risks and dangers of doing business in different countries. Businesses should not stop doing business altogether in other countries, but they should exercise care and seek local legal advice. This can be especially important with online businesses.'
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