Posted on 12/07/2010 12:53:00 PM PST by a fool in paradise
Google Inc. has acknowledged trespassing by taking a photo of a Pennsylvania couple's home for its Street View service, but the company will pay only $1 in damages.
...Aaron and Christine Boring, of Franklin Park, sued two years ago. They say Google's images of their home were taken from their long driveway, which is a private road.
The couple's attorney says Google has "conceded liability as an intentional trespasser," which was the point of the lawsuit.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
“admit wrong” is like leaving your credit card on the counter at Grand Central Station.
Not if it ends proceedings. Yeah you don’t want to admit you’re wrong while there’s still a pending suit, but if it puts an end to the suit it’s a no brainer. But Google has that “do no evil” thing.
The couple didn’t go for the billions because they didn’t want it to be about the money. They’re financially secure thought is was more important to show that Google did something bad than getting the big score. I can kind of see it, these days so many suits are just blatant money grabs without any wrongdoing on the part of the sued that even with wrong doing most people think it’s all about the money. This keeps the couple’s image untarnished, and now Google has admitted they aren’t as squeaky clean as the like to present.
Well, the trespass was because the truck drove down a road that turned out to be a private driveway. It isn’t, and shouldn’t be, illegal to take photographs from a public way, IMHO.
Hey, it's not your fault. It was probably some sort of invisible hand hitting the wrong keys.
piecese - noun, FReeperism - specie of infinitesimal worth, as in: not worth the paper its written on; not worth a plugged nickel; not worth the rust on a red-painted barn.
Hey, I'm series hear!
50 cents after the lawyer takes his cut of the settlement.
you ought to get some kind of prize for these.
I would tend to agree. However, when it's done specifically for the sale of the image of your specific property, and for global distribution for anyone to view anywhere, it's a whole new game. Privacy is arguably infringed, liability possibly incurred by the distributor of the images, and, as I stated before, the economic opportunity created by one's unique image, capitalized upon, argues for a share in the return for the titleholder of the object of that image.
Here's the nub in our over-exposed society, IMHO.
Don't know if I can explain this fully, but since the advent of the web, all types of info is now readily available to folks that either wouldn't (shouldn't?) normally see it, or specifically target and use said info for their own profit or purpose contrary to the wishes of the owner. This Google trespass is one, another is the wholesale uploads of "Public Records" to the web for nefarious purpose.
Back in the 70's, Gannett printed five full pages of full names and addresses of every Concealed Carry Holder in Monroe County, NY while they (Gannett) was beating the drums to have all weapons removed from all 'civilians'. Now, anyone could have personally gone to County Records and perused the records, no problem; but for the local newsrag to do it, and collate the records culled from all the towns and villages - in my mind - was a violation of the privacy those CCW folks expected. You can bet that the list made some criminals happy; first to know which places to avoid, or which ones to 'score'. Of course, Gannett hid behind the First Amendment, claiming it was in the public's 'right to know'.
I don't know what the full answer is, but I commend these folks in staying the course, and getting a solid conviction against Google.
Now then, we are not likely to see this right given much heed, as the amount of money and power riding on the surveillance society is, at current valuations, probably nearly incalculable.
And money drives it -- and when money stops driving it, naked power does (as money is a proxy for power).
Enough for now.
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