This is bizarre, and interesting on a whole bunch of different levels. Here's a link to the story:
http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/supreme-court-upholds-worldwide-order-directing-google-to-block-content-1.3479912A B.C. company called Equustek developed a specialized device that allowed specialized data equipment from differing companies to easily exchange data with each other. Lots of engineering, big success, jobs created, etc.
They engaged the services of another company, Datalink, to sell their portals. But it wasn't long before they discovered that Datalink was removing Equustek labels, and selling the equipment as their own. Later, if I understand the story correctly, Datalink had the boards reverse engineered and started manufacturing and selling the equipment directly. Direct violation of a whole bunch of patents.
Equustek cried foul, and moved to get the company shut down. But the company would jump from country to country, while continuing to sell equipment through their website.
So Equustek moved to have the company removed from Google searches, and that order was granted by the B.C. provincial court. But Google refused to comply, and the matter was referred to the Canadian Supreme Court.
Today, in a 7-2 decision, the Canadian Supreme Court ordered Google to enforce a global ban on searches for Datalink.
This is interesting, in that a relatively small country - 99.5% of all humans do Not live in Canada - has been able to force policies that affect the global population. From Google's point of view, they must either comply, or shutter their operations in Canada.
I am in total agreement with Equusteks desire to enforce every legal means at their disposal to shut down Datalink.
But what happens when middle eastern countries decide that Google must stop searches for Porn, or cease to operate in the middle east? What happens when some U.S. states decide that Google must stop searches for Abortion Clinics, or cease operations in that state?
If I were Datalink, I'd just change the name of my company to 'superlink' and carry on as before.
And it's important to note that while this restriction applies to Google, it does not apply to Yahoo, Duck Duck Go, Bing, or all the other search engines.
So... I'm kinda thinking that forcing just Google to follow this policy is unfair to Google. It should have been a ban on all major search engines.
And secondly, I don't think this will harm Datalink. They'll just change their name and carry on.
Finally, it sets a dangerous precedent - where a small group of people can enforce their beliefs on the global population. I think there's something really bad there.
What are your thoughts?
>Charlie