Defamatory Meta-tags-----Who's Responsible?

[webtopia]

About a year ago, myself and several others were almost killed by the negilgent actions of a boat captain. I subsequently found out that the man in fact did NOT have a captain's license and was presenting a forged captain's license to boat owners, insurance companies, etc (a class A felony, impersonating a maritime officer). As a licensed captain myself, I'm obligated under the law to report the forged license to the Coast Guard, which I did.

Since reporting him, this person put up a webpage in which in made false and defamatory remarks about me--I guess as a form of revenge. As soon as I found about the website, I had my lawyer send cease and desist letters to the webmaster (the guy with the forged license) and the web host. The webmaster never replied--the web host immediately pulled the page off its server.

The domain is now parked at Oingo.com and hosted via Network Solutions. The problem is that when someone googles my name, a link to the old web page comes up, and in the description for the link it says: "Known drug-dealer, pedophile, and rapist" etc. When I called Network solutions, they said there really isn't anything they can do because the defamatory statements aren't contained in the page itself they are hosting, but in the meta-tagging for the page.

Numerous emails to Google informing them that this is a dead link with defamatory meta-tags have gone unanswered. Weird thing is that some days it shows up, some days it doesn't. In effect Google's claim is that they are not responsible for web site content--the site owner is. but in this case there is no website content--just a parked page with defamatory meta-tags.

So, who's responsible for the defamatory meta-tag content? Do I go after Google, Network Solutions, and/or the website owner? I understand the website owner is currently incarcerated on other charges, and obviously it's going to be tough to compel him to do anything--but Google and/or Network Solutions should be able to do something.....

Your help is GREATLY appreciated!

Webtopia

[longen]

Since the page no longer exists you could use the Google URL removal tool to get rid of it for 6 months.

[webtopia]

I think the URL removal tool can only be used by the webmaster/owner, i.e they have to add the robot.txt file(s) to their site. In this case, the webmaster/owner is not a willing participant!

[Bondings]

The url-removal tool of google also removes non-existing url's. It can take a while, though, before the page is removed. (5 days according to google, but up to month month according to my own experience)

[webtopia]

Thanks for your suggestions!

But as far as I can tell, ALL Google URL removal requests have to be made by the webmaster (i.e via robot.txt files and/or meta-tags) and I'm not the webmaster!

If there's something I'm missing, please let me know!

Thanks again,

WT

[longen]

A "404 page not found" is probably treated in the same way as the noindex/noarchive, unless google has changed something. You have nothong to lose by just trying it.

[Rainie]

If the URL is delivering a 404 error, you don't have to be the webmaster of the site. You can use the removal tool just to "remove an outdated link."

I ended up using this for dozens of pages that someone copied from my website. Their entire site (which was ALL my material) was taken down after I reported them to their hosting company.

It took me awhile to realize I could do this. I waited for ten months, hoping that Google would just dump the info for those pages. Didn't happen. I went ahead and used the tool. It took 5-6 days, now they're gone.

One thing though, Google likes to keep old, outdated pages. They could reappear again after the time is up so you need to look out for that.

[inbound]

Please clarify:

Does the parked page have the offensive meta tags or is it the old (now deleted) page that shows up on Google searches?

If it is the old one then this is clearly Google's responsibility to act on your requests for removal. I would immediately instruct your lawyer to write to their legal department, explaining the situation, giving Google a fair amount of time to remove the offending data (who knows what 'fair' is? you will have to make the call on that), and making it clear that failure to act will result in further action.

Their legal department will see the liability immediately and that should be the end of it.

If it is the parked page I would still send the letter to Google but I would also sue the ass off the 'captain' as he has clearly acted maliciously, even after a very clear C&D.

###EDIT###

Disclaimer - I'm not a lawyer so consult a good one before going ahead.

[webtopia]

Thanks to Inbound and others for offering their help--I really appreiciate it.

If you do a google search for my name, on the first page (of course....)google lists a link to a URL. In the description for the link on the google page, it has my name in bold, and "babykiller, rapist, etc." If you click on the link and go to the page, the page is parked at Oingo.com and the page itself says nothing defamatory about me--basically says "under construction" and there's a ton of ads/links, etc.

So, I believe that the page is still "active" indeed the google URL remover tool said I couldn't delete the page because it is still active. Once loaded, the title for the page says "Search Directory Page" so I don't believe the defamatory text is in the title, but in the meta-tags, which I have no idea how to access or change.

Any other ideas?

Thanks!

Webtopia

[webtopia]

I forgot to mention, I never get a 404 message connected to this page/site.

[graeme_p]

Inbound's advice still applies: google are responsible, get a lawyer to write to them and ask for the old page to be removed.

[inbound]

How to see the description meta tag:

Go to the offending page, right click on a blank part of the main page content then select 'view source' (in Internet Explorer) or 'view page source' (in Firefox).

This will bring up something like this (part of Yahoo.co.uk's source:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html lang="en-GB">
<head>
<title>Yahoo! UK &amp; Ireland</title>
<meta name="description" content="Yahoo! UK &amp; Ireland Home Page – Search the web and the Yahoo! Web Directory, sign up for a free Yahoo! email account and find the latest from Yahoo! Finance, Sports, Entertainment and News">
<meta name="keywords" content="UK search engine, web directory, web search, image search, video search, Finance, Sports, Music, Movies, Games, free email, free ecards, free messenger"

Look for something similar to the bold bit, the part in content="" section is the place where you may see the offending text.

Let us know if it's the same as what you are seeing on Google.

P.S. &amp; stands for &

[webtopia]

Thanks inbound,

Apparently, my call to the web host yesterday was taken seriously--the meta tags now read "googlebot, no index/no follow."

We'll see how long it lasts.

The bottom line in this deal is that the meta tags are on the page (even a parked page) and thus the web host can be liable for damages if knowingly hosting defamatory content. I'm sure that the web host was not aware of the defamatory meta tags until I brought it to their attention. Obviously, calling someone a babykiller and rapist is more than likely without merit.....

So, it's taken care of for now, but I will definitely be monitoring it.

Thanks again for everyone who offered advice--I really appreciate your help!

WT