[ImperatorLunae]

<i>otherwise although it is a loophole I am pretty sure it is illegal.</i>

It would <i>seem</i> that this is illegal, but I've never heard of a law protecting one's right to be listed in a search engine.

Perhaps, if this process requires you to be the owner, it qualifies as fraud?

[dwwoelfel]

If you want italics, use asterisks instead of <i></i>'s.

For example,

    *italic*

produces italic.

http://news.ycombinator.com/formatdoc

[ImperatorLunae]

thanks!

[praptak]

"but I've never heard of a law protecting one's right to be listed in a search engine."

I believe that in most countries where computer crime law exists, removing or modifying data that is not yours(1) is covered by the law.

(1) What's "yours" and what's not is of course a very tricky question when it comes to immaterial things. Whether a listing for your webpage generated by a third party is yours, I wouldn't bet (on either side.)

[tetha]

In germany, you might have a stab at sueing for lost income, for example if you are a shop with a large number coming from google search, or if you get large amounts of ad revenue from visitors from google.