Re:German ruling declares Google liable for false answers in...
by camillomiller on Wednesday June 10, 2026 @06:08AM
(#48474030)
I wrote a one star review and posted pictures of a badly burnt pizza served at a restaurant in Berlin.
Google sent me an email telling me they removed that because the restaurant filed a defamation claim
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Re:German ruling declares Google liable for false answers in...
by belorn on Wednesday June 10, 2026 @07:01AM
(#48474470)
Sounds similar to Nintendo dmca takedowns. You could challenge the defamation claim in court and win, but you would have to spend a lot of money and time, and the only thing you get back in the end is the right to post the review.
Re:German ruling declares Google liable for false answers in...
by breezybottom on Wednesday June 10, 2026 @07:10AM
(#48474550)
How is that remotely similar? DMCA is about IP law.
Re:German ruling declares Google liable for false answers in...
by doubled112 on Wednesday June 10, 2026 @07:53AM
(#48474945)
You could challenge the *DCMA* claim in court and win, but you would have to spend a lot of money and time, and the only thing you get back in the end is the right to post the *code to Github*.
Re:German ruling declares Google liable for false answers in...
by mystraline on Wednesday June 10, 2026 @07:57AM
(#48474985)
The answer is you stay clear of US law jurisdictions and post your code to gitflic.ru
Its where the DRM bypass software lives these days, along with Bypass Paywalls Clean.
Re:German ruling declares Google liable for false answers in...
by doubled112 on Wednesday June 10, 2026 @08:29AM
(#48475313)
I've been on the internet for a long time, and it still surprises me that people willingly post emulator code next to their real names on Github.
Re:German ruling declares Google liable for false answers in...
by t-3 on Wednesday June 10, 2026 @09:45AM
(#48476207)
There's nothing illegal about emulation, IP theft is illegal. 99%+ of emulator projects are totally legal except in insanely corrupt countries.
Re:German ruling declares Google liable for false answers in...
by mystraline on Wednesday June 10, 2026 @02:02PM
(#48480213)
> IP theft is illegal
For the plebes, it is a civil tort.
For the AI companies, its required for "training". Rules dont apply to too-large-to-fail professional for-profit pirates.
But damn you if you try to make a Netflix-clone with every video. Wew.
[dead]
Re:German ruling declares Google liable for false answers in...
by bialpio on Wednesday June 10, 2026 @06:22AM
(#48474141)
It doesn't matter if some people think good pizza should be burnt to some degree. There is no such thing as objectively good pizza, so one-star review "The pizza was burnt, I didn't like it." is entirely valid thing to say.
Re:German ruling declares Google liable for false answers in...
by CarlitosHighway on Sunday June 14, 2026 @01:58AM
(#48524589)
I disagree.
Re:German ruling declares Google liable for false answers in...
by addandsubtract on Wednesday June 10, 2026 @07:28AM
(#48474724)
Bro is in this thread defending Google like he owns stocks. Oh wait...
Re:German ruling declares Google liable for false answers in...
by CarlitosHighway on Sunday June 14, 2026 @02:01AM
(#48524601)
Well I do own Google stocks, since their IPO, but I'm not defending Google here but German culture against low-bro 400pounds American nerds.
Re:German ruling declares Google liable for false answers in...
by jfoster on Wednesday June 10, 2026 @06:29AM
(#48474198)
The entire concept of a review is that it's one person's opinion.
Re:German ruling declares Google liable for false answers in...
by CarlitosHighway on Sunday June 14, 2026 @01:59AM
(#48524591)
In Germany, we care more about facts and I'd rather have it stay that way. Americans lost their right to talk ANYTHING German a decade ago.
Re:German ruling declares Google liable for false answers in...
by DiogenesKynikos on Wednesday June 10, 2026 @06:29AM
(#48474202)
Something like this happened to me too, for what it's worth. I wrote a completely factual description of my bad experience with a shop, and then got a nasty notice from Google that my review was being taken down because of a defamation claim.
I looked up how this works, and I found ads for law firms that specialize in removing bad reviews. They charge a set price for each review they remove. As a regular consumer, you just have to accept that your honest reviews will be removed, unless you're willing to risk going to court, where you'll have to prove that your subjective experience was accurate.
Re:German ruling declares Google liable for false answers in...
by klvino on Wednesday June 10, 2026 @07:02AM
(#48474475)
Creating an unflattering online review has such a low bar for confirming identity. It would not be a surprise for a law firm advertising the review takedown service were hiring bot farms to leave reviews at scale, create their own market.
Re:German ruling declares Google liable for false answers in...
by CarlitosHighway on Sunday June 14, 2026 @02:00AM
(#48524595)
Those law firms also have to operate within the law, doh.
So if you think your review needs to stand, you should hire a law firm yourself and fight for your cause.
Re:German ruling declares Google liable for false answers in...
by DiogenesKynikos on Thursday June 25, 2026 @04:53AM
(#48670796)
Nice, so every time I visit a restaurant and want to leave a review, I'll have to lawyer up. Sounds eminently reasonable.
Re:German ruling declares Google liable for false answers in...
by cpburns2009 on Wednesday June 10, 2026 @12:54PM
(#48479174)
I gave a one star review to some cheap restaurant in Potsdam 10 years ago. I literally just said you get what you pay for. Last year I got a similar email from Google saying the review was removed for defamation.