Google Porn Lawsuit Tossed in Manhattan
A New York Supreme Court judge has tossed out a $100 million lawsuit against the ex-employees a doctor blames for associating his name online with hard-core porn Web sites – and creating his own obsession with Googling his name, according to the New York Post.
SEW Expert Chris Boggs has written about the benefits of Googling your name in “Confessions of an Online Reputation Management Junkie.” But Chris never warned readers of the hazards. It may be an incurable disease.
The three ex-employees sued Dr. Arden Kaisman for sexual harassment last year. Since then, Google searches under his name lead to hundreds of raunchy Web sites.
Dr. Kaisman claimed the trio and others “conspired” to have his name linked to the porn sites, and that the anesthesiologist has lost business and developed a strange form of mental distress as a result.
“I find myself obsessed with ‘Googling’ my name,” Dr. Kaisman said. “The Internet, the great information equalizer, has been corrupted to hurt me. . . . I’m told I have an ‘incurable Internet disease.’ “
State Supreme Court Justice Jane Solomon didn’t buy Dr. Kaisman’s diagnosis and said there’s no evidence the three former employees are linked to the postings.
Even if there was, Kaisman couldn’t sue over having his name linked to pornography. It seems the women complained about – and Kaisman has admitted to – e-mailing employees “sexually explicit images.”
Kaisman’s lawyer, Sidney Segall, said there’s a big difference between the types of e-mails his client was sending and the types of sites he’s now linked to.
Solomon said there are “qualitative differences” between the sites and Kaisman’s e-mails, but ruled in favor of the employees.