Google will have to pay formula one driver Rubens
Barrichello half a million dollars in damages because it hosted
fake profiles of him on social networking site Orkut.
According to motorsport.com a court in Sao Paolo, Brazil,
ordered Google - which owns Orkut - to pay $500,000 damages but
this could rise to $700,000, because there could be an extra daily
fine. The case began in July 2006.
Social networking site
Twitter is trialing ways to verify accounts to prevent people
tweeting in the name of others. St Louis Cardinals baseball
team manager Tony La Russa filed a lawsuit against Twitter over
fake tweets made in his name.
Google said in a statement that it will appeal. “We would first
like to clarify that this is only an initial judgement and we look
forward to the reconsideration of this decision on appeal by the
Court of Appeals.
“Mr Rubens Barrichello is a public figure, and as such is subject
to both the positive and negative expression of public opinion. In
this sense, Google reaffirms that we are not responsible for any
injury to Mr Barrichello's public image and we believe that a
better solution will be affirmed upon the definitive and final
judgement of the case by the appellate courts."