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back to article Google wins fight to keep Adwords FBI drug sting docs secret

Google has won a crucial battle in its campaign to keep under wraps millions of documents relating to an FBI drugs probe into the company. And the web giant has done so using a law designed to combat porn sites. At least 20 US states, led by Mississippi’s elected state prosecutor, opened a probe to find out whether Google was …

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  1. martinusher Silver badge

    Probably not about dodgy pharma sites at all

    The real issue is that pharmaceuticals are grossly overpriced in the US -- for example, there was an article this morning in the LA Times about how a tube of cold sore cream (made in the UK) that sells for $44ish in Canada gets a base price of around $2500 to the insurer. This gouging prompts people to go overseas -- primarily Canada -- to get medications if they can't get their insurers to eat the excess cost. Since we as a country are only interested in promoting free markets up to a point we've expended significant legal and lobby resources to prevent our citizens from purchasing medications from sites in Canada, so far without success. This looks like another attempt to stop this, so far another failed attempt.

    Oh yes, and we went through all the 'you don't know what you're buying if you get it from overseas' PR stuff -- ad campaigns and so on. As if Canada was some dodgy third world backwater.

    17 2 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Probably not about dodgy pharma sites at all

      Hood, Mississippi’s corporate crime fighter (dubbed “the last Democrat in Dixie”)

      Because the rest of the Democrats in Dixie were voted out after plunging their states deeply into debt (look it up). That's why the poorest states in the USA have been run by Democrats (After a lifetime of Dem domination, Mississippi recently voted in a Repub Governor and legislature).

      2 7 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Probably not about dodgy pharma sites at all

        "(look it up). That's why the poorest states in the USA have been run by Democrats"

        Don't forget to add that states run by Republicans have the highest poverty level per capita and not surprisingly, the lowest income levels.

        So what does it all mean? It means that politicians of any kind don't help people, you're fucked both ways. The system is broken like a glass, it will never again serve its purpose.

        13 0 Reply
    2. asdf
      Reply Icon

      Re: Probably not about dodgy pharma sites at all

      The particular party in charge might change over time but the deep south has stayed consistently poor and consistently right wing since well before the Civil War.

      3 0 Reply
    3. jonathanb Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Probably not about dodgy pharma sites at all

      I agree that Canada isn't a dodgy third world backwater. That means that Canadian pharmacies can only issue prescription medicines if supported by a prescription from a suitably qualified doctor. There are pharmacies in the UK that let you order prescription drugs online, but you have to send your prescription to them by post.

      2 0 Reply
  2. I Am Spartacus
    WTF?

    Do no evil.

    And if you find that doing evil is profitable, then use the law to tell the DA that you can't release documents showing you did evil.

    15 6 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Do no evil.

      Pretty much a fact, but someone downvoted you. But, the downvote sort of goes in hand with what you're saying...hide the evil :-)

      5 2 Reply
    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Do no evil.

      This is not failing to "do no evil", this is actively doing evil. That there are still downvoters for others making similar assertions shows there are still some naive Google fanboys who believe the shit they're being spoonfed.

      Companies that are not doing evil don't need the vast lobbying apparatus Google now maintains in DC.

      13 3 Reply
      1. Daggerchild Silver badge
        Reply Icon

        Re: Do no evil.

        "Companies that are not doing evil don't need the vast lobbying apparatus Google now maintains in DC."

        They didn't used to. Then their competitors started using a vast lobbying apparatus against them. Go figure :)

        8 1 Reply
        1. Anonymous Coward
          Reply Icon
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Do no evil.

          And this particular case of lobbying DC to get what they want involves the competition how, exactly? They just want to make more money, and don't care if they are aiding and abetting breaking US law in doing so. If it is true that Page knew about and approved of this, no wonder Google paid a quarter billion in hush money to the state of Rhode Island.

          Luckily for them that sum of money goes further there than it would in almost any other state. They'd have had to pay over ten billion to California to get an equivalent per capita (let alone per road mile / per bridge / etc.) sum.

          4 4 Reply
  3. Mark 85

    Business as usual.. money, power, greed, graft, misinformation, and double-dealing. G has certainly changed things from their "don't do evil" mantra that's no where in sight.

    5 5 Reply
    1. Tom 35
      Reply Icon

      Once they went public

      It became Maximize Shareholder Value. Just like all the other public companies.

      1 1 Reply
  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Google, FBI, Drugs.

    Sounds like a good friday night out!

    4 0 Reply
  5. KjetilS

    There might be a lot more to this story than is told in this article. At least one of the letters he sent to Google was written by the MPAA (link NY Times), and he has admitted to having sent/received nearly 900 emails with the MPAA.

    In addition, he is close friends with a known MPAA lobbyist (Mike Moore).

    Google might be in the wrong here, but I don't really think Hood is in the right either.

    7 2 Reply
    1. Andrew Orlowski (Written by Reg staff)
      Reply Icon

      Repeating the smear on Hood, out of context, suggests you have real difficult with the context of this story.

      You can read the request from Hood and the Attorneys to Google yourself. It's 72 pages. Look where copyright or IP figures in it. Look what they're really after.

      3 1 Reply
      1. Daggerchild Silver badge
        Reply Icon
        Unhappy

        Repeating the smear on Hood, out of context, suggests you have real difficult with the context of this story

        But.. if Hood was not relevant to this context you would not have explicitely fleshed out his reputation with his fight against the Ku Klux Klan, and then explicitely poo-pooed his MPAA funding allegations.

        You can't have it both ways, surely. Is he in the story context or not? If he is, then even if you want to completely disregard me 'smearing' him with Project Goliath, he wrote a letter to Google on this very subject that, as it turns out, was actually written by MPAA lawyers, as exposed by the NY Times itself.

        http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/12/16/technology/attorney-general-letter-to-google.html

        Aaand you also didn't mention this injunction is explicitely temporary. 4 months.

        2 0 Reply
  6. asdf

    golf clap

    When Mississippi AG looks like the good guy its safe to say your Don't be evil BS curtain has fallen.

    3 3 Reply

  7. This post has been deleted by its author

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Secret documents?

    Now in 2015 I find it hard to imagine those documents would remain secret for long.

    0 0 Reply
    1. RyokuMas
      Reply Icon
      Devil

      Re: Secret documents?

      No difficult to keep things secret if you control the de facto search facility...

      0 0 Reply
  9. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    CDA

    If, as the article says, the CDA was struck down how is it that Google is able to use it? What does "struck down" mean in this context?

    6 0 Reply
  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "dodgy drugs peddled by Canadian pharmacies."

    who decides they are dodgy, does the Mississippi AG have the right to decide that for everyone who can access Google search results / see AdWords?

    Next we'll have some US local court saying they have jurisdiction over foreign countries like Ireland. At least we know that could never happen.

    err ..

    2 1 Reply

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