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WHITE PLAINS---The Nassau County legislator who sued Google, claiming that the Internet giant was "obscenely" profiting from child pornography has dropped his lawsuit.
A notice of discontinuance has been filed in federal court in White Plains.
Jeffrey Toback, a Democrat, filed suit in May claiming that Google had acted negligently and intentionally, inflicting emotional distress on the public by making child pornography an "obscenely profitable and integral part" of its operation.
Toback had accused Google of not taking steps to block child porn from its search engines and alleged that Google had paid links to web sites containing child pornography. Google of Mountain View, Ca., had denied the allegations through its spokesman. Google said that it has worked diligently to combat child pornography and to prevent access to it such as utilizing a service called SafeSearch in its search engine to filter out adult content. The spokesman also said that the company works with law enforcement agencies to restrict adult content.
Toback said he dropped the suit because Google had expressed a willingness to discuss the issue but would not do so as long as the litigation was pending. A Google spokesman said the company was "pleased that the suit has been dismissed and believe it was completely without merit". They also said that the suit was "far fetched" and for Toback to suggest he was dropping the suit so that he could speak with Google was "ridiculous". They said they weren't doing anything special because of his legal action.
Toback was not seeking monetary damages but wants to ban "advertising relating to websites that display, market or otherwise provide illegal access to pornography". 6-23-06
© 2006 North
Country Gazette
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