[ NNSquad ] Google vs. Bing lawsuit potentials

[Lauren Weinstein <lauren@vortex.com>]

An NNSquad reader has pointed me at:

http://bit.ly/hQHVep  (Shouting Loudly)

which explains why, in that article author's opinion, it would be
difficult for Google to successfully sue for copyright infringement in
the current case (Bing toolbar behavior), and suggests that a course
with more potential would be to sue over claimed violations of the
Google user "clickwrap" license that forbids automated queries and
such.

I think one problem with this approach would be that any "clickwrap"
agreement in terms of any individual user is between that user and
Google, not between the Bing toolbar and Google.  Google could try
claim violation of terms by the human user, but perhaps not
successfully that the terms were ever accepted in the first place by
Microsoft/Bing.  But beyond that, I'll bet that Microsoft would assert
that they're not accessing Google at all in the context of the
individual user machine, rather, that the machine's human user is
accessing Google and then chooses (via their "voluntary" installation
of the Bing toolbar in the first place) to share their queries and
results with Bing after the fact of the searches themselves.

Of course, neither I nor the author of that article are lawyers.

And I definitely agree with that author that lawsuits are often
not the best course.

--Lauren--
NNSquad Moderator