I am one of the many people who have been badly cyber bullied and attacked below the belt at my blogger blog. To some extent when a commenter (anonymous at that) commits a crime of slander/defamation, the IP adress should be handed over. Freedom of speech means speaking freely of the things that you think is right but not accusing people of things that may be wrong. If you do, be prepared that you have actual evidence. It is no longer freedom of speech because it abusing the freedom of speech by going to the extreme; to the level where it goes beyond freedom of speech. I wish if I had the money to sue my commenters, I can also find out who attacted me. No one should be allowed to slander another. That is just plain wrong. You have to be responsible for your actions.

There is a new blog providing some English translations from the old blog and also from the Israeli judge verdict. It looks to me like the plaintiffs twisted the truth somewhat. If this is considered criminal slander in Israel, I don't know what they use for truth. 
Here is the new link:
http://shaarei-tikva.behirot.net

Johnny wrote:

"Get real!! Google rolled for financial reasons."

Bingo. Ultimately, the bottom line transcends political or idealogical considerations. Google is a corporation, not a political entity.

Phil and mogbert- where are your heads? 

You believe that an online entity such as Google should obey the laws of every country? 

If the accused has a relative in a country where your comments are considered some sort of religious/legal affront, should they be able to prosecute YOU? 

Get real!! Google rolled for financial reasons.

I think people are seriously missing the point. Google as well as your net providers should have loyalty towards their users, not governments! The internet is a forum for free speech and Google as a powerful organisation should try and promote those rights. Many countries have laws that bloggers break, in some cases to highlight situations and abuse by their leaders.... for example the iranian nuclear research was leaked....do we now expect Google to aid governments in oppressive law enforcement? People have accused me of being anti-american....what Google has done is not anti-American, its uncivilised, by giving into governments requests to silence voices. I hope the same does not happen when Mugabe is finding it difficult to find rebels in his country!! If Google would tell the Israeli government, would they tell the Sudanese government? the Zimbabwean government, the Thai government? the Iranian government? the Russian government? or is just another case when the Israeli government is treated differently?

Seriously! Mogbert has it right, what do you others expect? 

Google don't seem to be adopting the oh, so popular American approach of exporting US law and backwards ideals on the rest of the world, and yes that may make them un-American. 

It also makes them right. I expected more of INQ readers.

So disappointed beyond belief. i'm sure Gen Musharraf, the arab leaders and corrupt african and far eastern leaders are rubbing their hands with glee!! i honestly cannot believe google has betrayed the relationship of trust that we all thought we had with it. I will only be happy if Google publicly apologises and openly states that it will never give information on political dissenters to any government, even Israel!

Would this have happened so easily if it had been in Iran?

Free with my Sunday paper was a miniature 'For Dummies' series book entitled 'Connecting People Using Google. For Dummies'

I glanced at this hoping it would be about finding people on the intenet using Google. Instead it states "...this book explains how you can...at little cost.. connect people with what you're offering".

So it's actually it's about how to make money by ruining Google's search capabilities by stuffing them full of false leads to advertising. 

This is what Google has descended to. Dump these money grubbing dummies and use another search engine.

Guess what? A company has to follow the laws of any company in which it opperates. Just like Yahoo had to turn over it's political dissent blogger. A company can't pick and choose which countries laws to abide by. That would be tantamount to the corporation making up it's only laws.

It's easy to sit in our country and claim that the companies should all follow our laws around the world because our laws are obviously the most ethical.

You cowards. Why give in to the worst terrorist country in the world. Dont fear these scumbags. They are on their way out. You have lost this and many other Google users. We will never use you again. Your cowards and unAmerican and we will have nothing to do with you. Watch you stock fall...

So basically this means that Google will courageously stand up for Freedom and Justice in the US, where it apparently fears nothing, but in any other country, it folds like a house of cards before the two-year-old even gets to the table.
What a positively remarkable dedication to Free Speech. What a brilliant way of exporting the American view of Freedom and Justice.
Congratulations, Google. Your balls turn yellow faster than a traffic light.