Court rules Search Engines have the right to block objectionable Adverts

[mandy]

Langdon is a griper. He sought to buy ads on the major search engines to advance his gripes, but Google allegedly rejected his ads because they attacked people, MSN allegedly ignored his ad request, and Yahoo allegedly said it would only take ads from sites it hosts. Langdon then sued all three pro se, requesting (among other relief) that the search engines be required to carry his ads.

As expected, the judge emphatically shut down Langdon's lawsuit, calling some of his claims "specious" and "frivolous." Specifically, the judge made the following key points that surely will help search engines in future litigation:

* Search engines have a First Amendment right to reject ads as part of their protected right to speak or not (see Miami Herald v. Tornillo). This opinion is consistent with the uncited Search King ruling, although that case framed Google's Page Rank as protected opinion...

full article: http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/200...ines_3.htm

[jezebel]

Search engines have a First Amendment right to reject ads as part of their protected right to speak or not (see Miami Herald v. Tornillo).

Forums have the same right to to filter objectionable content