Google fined $1 for Street View trespassing
By Barry Collins
Posted on 2 Dec 2010 at 09:18
Google has been fined the princely sum of $1 for trespassing with its Street View cameras.
The somewhat unfortunately named Aaron and Christine Boring sued Google in 2008 for "intentional and/or grossly reckless invasion" of their privacy, after the company sent its Street View cars down the couple's private road and snapped a photo of their house. The couple, you will doubtless be shocked to hear, are from the US - the state of Pennsylvania to be precise.
Most of the Boring's charges against Google had previously been thrown out, including "intrusion into seclusion", negligence and "public disclosure of private facts".
However, the court for the Western District of Pennsylvania decided the couple did have a case against Google when it came to the charge of trespass - although it seems the judge wasn't over-burdened with sympathy for the grief they had suffered.
The Honourable Cathy Bassoon awarded the Borings nominal damages of $1 - which is 64 pence in proper money. You can read the full text of the judgement here.
Google, in a delicious piece of understatement, issued the following statement: “We are pleased that this lawsuit has finally ended with plaintiffs’ acknowledgment that they are entitled to only $1,” according to a report on TechCrunch.
Lol
$1 what a joke.....
Google are probably like, (f**k yeah) right now, D
By mobilegnet on 2 Dec 2010 
Surely some mistake?
Are you sure? This is the USA we are talking about. Surely there should be an 'M' on there? Or have their courts finally started to see sense?
By MJ2010 on 2 Dec 2010
Are Google going to appeal the decision?
By vikarmo on 2 Dec 2010
MS too?
I once bought a computer to put Linux on - and found Windows had been installed on the hard-drive!
I could hardly sleep at night - perhaps I could take this to the courts?
Or should I take the vendor to the courts for "negligence" :o)
And as for the postman/woman - they trespass nearly every day... I think I'll take Royal Mail to the cleaners for £28.47
By Sercul on 2 Dec 2010
Dog bites Man
It's a classic case of unusual decisions sticking out. The USA is a massive country of hundreds of millions of people and for every man bites dog decision (store liable for tripping over your own child etc) you get just plain, sensible ones like this.
Logically it's obvious because the USA hasn't actually exploded from all the crazy yet. We just get the highlights over here.
By steviesteveo12 on 2 Dec 2010
4x4landie
The judge's name is Cathy Bissoon not Cathy Bassoon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathy_Bissoon
By 4x4landie on 2 Dec 2010
Good result
Hopefully the grossly greedy couple are sufficiently embarrassed by the whole ordeal they have brought on themselves, that they wanted to accept any conclusion and get out of the limelight. Perhaps they will sue themselves for the consequent much bigger intrusion into their "seclusion" as a result of blowing it out of all proportion. Normal people would just have asked for the images to be removed and it would have been between them and Google.
By halsteadk on 3 Dec 2010
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