The Connexion reports that a man who sued Google in France after Street View captured him peeing in his yard has lost his lawsuit:
Despite losing his case in court, the man snapped peeing in his back yard by Google Street View has won a victory as the internet giant has withdrawn his picture from the webpage.
The 50 year old claimed Google had made him the laughing stock of his village by publishing the picture – and lodged a complaint of intruding into his private life with the Tribunal de Grande Instance at Angers in Maine-et-Loire.
However, the judges threw out his complaint as he had made his complaint against Google France when the Street View service was edited by Google USA. They ordered him to pay €1,200 legal expenses to Google France.
The judges said he should, instead, continue his complaint against Google USA as he had also lodged a claim for €10,000 damages.
However, the man’s lawyer said he probably would not continue the case as the photo had since been pulled from the site, adding: “We lost in law but we won in fact.”
Wouldn’t have Google pulled this anyway, upon request? Did this really require a lawsuit? And did this guy ever hear of the Streisand Effect?
Sounds like the lawyer’s a bit of a fool!