A New York legislator with an apparent history of odd child-protection measures (like a war on tanning beds) has dropped his lawsuit alleging that Google is the “world’s largest facilitator and distributor of child pornography.”
Filing the lawsuit in New York’s Supreme Court in May earned Nassau County’s Jeffrey Toback the title of Dorkus Maximus from Sunbelt president Alex Eckelberry, as well of heaps of criticism from attorney blogger Eric Goldman.
Goldman had predicted the lawsuit wouldn’t survive a motion to dismiss, but Toback (maybe after accusations of publicity hounding, ‘wacky’ term defining, and stinging derision came whizzing by his head) decided to drop the suit instead. Toback says he dropped the suit because Google wouldn’t discuss the issue with him while litigation was pending.
Google, no doubt steamed after being accused of having paid links to child pornography, told the Associated Press that Toback made a poor choice of communication methods:
“If Mr. Toback would like to talk with us about something, he should consider approaching it with a phone call, letter or other common form of communication, not an irresponsible lawsuit,” [Google spokesperson Steve] Langdon said, adding that the suit contained “some of the most far-fetched accusations we’ve ever heard.”
Toback now wishes to have a meeting with the company – perhaps with a technical advisor on how exactly search engines work and an etymologist to describe phrases like “child pornography,” “distributor,” and “telephone.”
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