Google Search Results as Protected Opinion -- Another Angle

by Paul Alan Levy

I recently blogged here about the controversy about the extent to which the First Amendment protects Google's search algorithm and the search results that it produces; one aspect of that analysis turns on whether they are opinion or fact, and in discussing that point I drew from libel litigation treating the protected status of ratings and rankings.  A recent piece by James Grimmelman, scholarly but at the same time somewhat playful, addresses whether ratings are opinion or fact from an entirely different perspective, their copyrightability.  Thanks to Rebecca Tushnet for pointing me to this article.