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This case is one among numerous civil lawsuits brought against the search engines Google and Yahoo! by different ‘celebrities’ and well‐known public figures for violation of their honor and privacy (see below Rodriguez and Da Cuhna for more background information). In this case, the court found search engines strictly liable under Article 1113 of the Civil Code, which imposes liability, regardless of knowledge or intention, to those performing risky acts (e.g. indexing third party content creating wider audiences for illegitimate content) or serving as the “guardians” of the thing that generates the damage (e.g. the search engine’s software).

Confirmed the previous decision regarding a criminal lawsuit against 10 YouTube users accused of publishing a movie on the platform and infringing copyright law, in particular Article 71 of Law 11.723. The final decision concluded that contents that are uploaded on YouTube are not known in advance by the site administrators who, therefore, do not act as "guarantors" of the content and/or neccessarily partecipate in possible illegal actions. According to the ruling, YouTube is an intermediary enjoing a special contition due to its essential character of being a platform to share cultural information globally. The Court concluded that the inherent potential risks of this activity must be balanced with the benefits in terms of the dissemination of cultural content. It also noted that users uploading videos do not infringe...

This case is one among other civil lawsuits brought against the search engines Google and Yahoo! by different ‘celebrities’ and well‐known public figures for violation of their honor and privacy (see below Da Cuhna for more background information). The plaintiff, a former model, sought an order requiring Google and Yahoo to: (i) permanently block from the search results the links to webpages displaying prostitution ads and pornography whenever they included her name or images, which allegedly violated her constitutional rights; (ii) stop any commercial unauthorized use of her image and name, which allegedly infringed her publicity right and, (iii) pay damages. (1) Specifically, the Court of Appeals first decided that strict liability is not compatible with freedom of expression and rejected the plaintiff’s request to...

The website Cuevana, active since 2009, provides streaming links to several movies and TV series. HBO Ole Partners requested to completely block the website for a copyright law violation in connection with the Epitafios TV series. The plaintiff's request, based on Article 13 of the Copyright Law, was rejected by the Appelate Court in February 2013. The Court argued that such a measure seemed excessive and disproportionate. Copyright enforcement, the Court noted, must be balanced with regard to the protection of other fundamental rights of the persons affected by such measures. The ruling also indicates that it has yet to be determined if Cuevana is a website that just provides links or has an index of links leading to content which individual users are responsible for, or there are specific people designated to...

Individuals sued Mercado Libre after having bought counterfeit tickets on their website. Mercado Libre functions as an online platform which provides a space for sellers to advertise and sell their merchandise and for potential buyers to navigate and shop as desired. Similar to ebay, MercadoLibre serves as a mediator, effectuating limited supervision on individual transactions. Due to the fact that Mercado Libre makes a profit, not only from the space it provides to sellers, but also from each transaction, the National Civil Court of Appeals found it appropriate to apply Argentina’s Consumer Protection Law. Furthermore, Mercado Libre has the responsibility of seeing the transaction through until the buyers receive the merchandise they rightfully purchased. Therefore, Mercado Libre was found guilty alongside with the...