Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Google Confuses Search and eDiscovery: May Cost Billions



http://ow.ly/7h3c6

An article by Dan Elam on the aiim.org website.

This article discusses a legal dispute between Oracle and Google regarding license fees for Java.

Java powers a portion of Google's Android operating system, and Google apparently never acquired a license to use Java, which was owned by Sun (whom Oracle purchased).

The article states, "Computerworld’s James Niccolai wrote a great article going over the particulars (a link to the referenced article is included) but the bottom line is that when Google responded to Oracle’s discovery request, they used search technologies and produced an email that was particularly incriminating. (Google argues that the email is out of context and was part of a legal discussion, not a business decision.) Google hasn’t disclosed the specifics of what happened and has only said their used their tools for the search.

The email had multiple drafts, but only the last one was labeled as “Attorney Work Product” and would have been subject to being withheld from the discovery request. That means it should never have been produced. Already the judge in the case has told the Google lawyers that the email is going to be particularly damaging as he has encouraged both sides to negotiate a settlement."

The article discusses eDiscovery and attorney review and goes on to mention other examples of errors, and references pitfalls to avoid.

Ultimately the author states, "When it is all over Google may end with the most expensive eDiscovery mistake in legal history. Ironic for a company famously committed to “do no evil” and who should know more about the technologies than anyone else."

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