Argentine Model Sues Google, Yahoo Over Unauthorized Images: Photos Linked to Pornographic Websites
Argentine model Maria Belén Rodriguez is currently entangled in a lawsuit against Google and Yahoo, which she claimed linked her name and modeling photos to pornographic websites.
In an interview with CNN earlier this week, Rodriguez said that her photos had been used without her permission to either lure web browsers to sites with adult content or be placed within those sites that feature pornographic images of other women.
Rodriguez also said that her reputation has been damaged from the unauthorized use of her photos.
"They have ruined my life and now say that what I'm asking for is censorship. It suits them but not me," Rodriguez said. "Truthfully for me, having to explain every day that I'm not a prostitute is a daily complication, as simple as that."
The lawsuit has dragged on since 2006 when the now 30-year-old model sued the two search engines. After a 2010 ruling in favor of Rodriguez who was awarded 120,000 Argentine pesos -- roughly $15,000 -- Google and Yahoo appealed the decision to a higher court, which lowered the amount to $6,200.
The case is now is now being heard in Argentina's Supreme Court, where lawyers from the two companies claimed Thursday that the search engines are not responsible for the actions of third parties and how they use a model's image, CNN reported.
The attorneys, including Yahoo attorney Alberto Bueres, also said that the companies don't regulate content on the Internet because neither site has the capability of doing so.
"It is technically and economically impossible to before-the-fact monitor millions of pages of content available on the Internet because of their volume and because they constantly change," Bueres said. "To argue against this is to favor before-the-fact censorship and to ignore economic realities."
Maria Baudino, a legal affairs manager for Google's Latin America division, claimed that had Rodriguez brought the issue up directly to the companies, the search engines would have been able to block the pages or unlike the photos, essentially preventing the eight-year legal battle.
"In this particular case, there was a consistent and prolonged refusal to identify the content in question," Baudino said. "It's necessary to identify the content by providing URLs in every single case for the simple reason, that if they're not identified, neither Google nor anybody else is able to determine what we're talking about."
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