Category Archives: Publication

No tort for breach of privacy in South Australian epic: Sands v South Australia [2013] SASC 44

In a trial that ran for 55 days late last year and concluding in February this year, the plaintiff, Derick John Sands, has lost his claim for defamation, as well as other claims including a breach of confidence and a … Continue reading

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Google Australia not a publisher: Rana v Google Australia Pty Ltd [2013] FCA 60

In asserting that it is not a publisher of its search engine results, Google has at last had a win, of sorts, in the Federal Court. But the win was not as emphatic as Google would have liked, and certainly … Continue reading

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Google wins but loses again, now in UK: Tamiz v Google Inc [2013] EWCA Civ 68

Payam Tamiz, an English Conservative politician who had been running for the local elections in Thanet, sued Google for anonymous comments on a blog that was created on Google’s blogger platform, “London Muslim”. The comments were posted between 28 and … Continue reading

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Google wins ACCC battle in High Court, but has it lost the defamation war?: Google Inc v ACCC [2013] HCA 1

In 2012, the Full Court of the Federal Court held that Google engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct, in breach of s.52 of the Trade Practices Act because if a person searched for four particular businesses, misleading or deceptive sponsored … Continue reading

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$200,000: Trkulja’s Second Big Win to Send Google into a Frenzy: Trkulja v Google Inc [2012] VSC [2012] VSC 533

In Silicon Valley, Google’s legal representatives will now be acquainting themselves with Australian defamation law and grimacing a lot, as for what seems to be the first time, a common law court has determined that, for the purposes of defamation, … Continue reading

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One Small Step for Mr Trkulja, One Giant Leap for GoogleKind: Trkulja v Google Inc [2012] VSC

In February this year, Milorad Trkulja, a Melbourne Music Promoter sued Yahoo!. What had happened was that if a person searched his name on Yahoo!, the results contained links to an article that linked him to the Melbourne underworld. While … Continue reading

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Solicitors’ defamation law argument fails: David v Abdishou [2012] NSWCA 109

The appellants (who were the plaintiffs at the trial) were solicitors who acted for Karl Suleman. In 2000 and 2001, Suleman induced many members of the Assyrian community in Sydney to invest in his supermarket trolley business, which ultimately collapsed. … Continue reading

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Black is Back in Ontario: Breeden v Black [2012] SCC 19

The term “libel tourist” is a term bandied about by defamation defendants to suggest some sort of impropriety by a defamation plaintiff.  The point that publishers seem to make is this: where something is published all around the world, the … Continue reading

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Google liable for its misleading search results: ACCC v Google Inc [2012] FCAFC 49

In terms of defamation, there hasn’t been a case in Australia that considers whether Google Inc in America is a publisher of indexed search results from its search engine. In England, a single judge has concluded that Google is not … Continue reading

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Music promoter wins $225,000: Trkulja v Yahoo! Inc LLC & Yahoo! 7 Pty Ltd [2012] VSC 88

Michael Trkulja was born in Yugoslavia in 1950. He migrated to Australia at 20 and in the early 1970s, while working in a travel agency business, began promoting singers and entertainers in the Yugoslav community. His work as a music … Continue reading

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