COPYCENSE

“A federal judge hearing arguments in the Department of Justice’s records fight with Google said Tuesday that he would grant federal prosecutors at least part of their request for excerpts from the search giant’s massive database.

“U.S. District Judge James Ware said he intends to release his decision ‘very quickly,’ and that he might give the Justice Department access to a portion of Google’s index of Web sites, but not to its users’ search terms.

“Ware said he was reluctant to give the Justice Department everything it wanted because of the “perception by the public that this is subject to government scrutiny” when they type search terms into Google.com.”

Declan McCullagh. Judge to Help Feds Against Google. News.com. March 14, 2006.

See also:

David H. Holtzman. Guarding Google’s Data Banks. BusinessWeek Online. March 14, 2006. (“The more successful Google is, the more unwelcome legal attention it will draw. As data continues to flood into Google, the comprehensiveness of its databases makes it a juicier target for government fishing expeditions.”)

Updates:

Anne Broache. Judge: Google Must Give Feds Limited Access to Records. News.com. March 17, 2006.

U.S. District Court, Northern District of California. Alberto R. Gonzales v. Google, Inc.: Order Granting In Part and Denying In Part Motion to Compel Compliance with Subpoena Duces Tecum. (.pdf) March 17, 2006.

CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.