A U.S. judge has    ruled that the Chinese search engine Baidu has the right to    block pro-democracy works from its query results, dismissing a    lawsuit that sought to punish the company for Internet    censorship.  
    The lawsuit    against Baidu, originally filed in 2011 by eight activists in    New York, claimed that the Chinese search engine had violated    U.S. laws on free speech. This was because Baidu had been    censoring pro-democracy works on its search engine for not only    its users in China, but also for those accessing the site from    New York.  
    The lawsuit    demanded Baidu pay US$16 million in damages. But on Thursday,    U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman of the U.S. District Court for    the Southern District of New York ruled against the activists,    and said requiring Baidu to include pro-democracy works in its    search results would run afoul of the U.S.s free speech    laws.  
    In his     ruling, Furman compared Baidus blocking of pro-democracy    works to a newspapers right to exercise editorial control to    publish what it wants. In Baidus case, the company has created    a search engine that favors certain political    speech.  
    The First    Amendment protects Baidus right to advocate for systems of    government other than democracy [in China or elsewhere] just as    surely as it protects Plaintiffs rights to advocate for    democracy, wrote Furman.  
    Baidu is also not    stopping U.S. users from accessing the pro-democracy works    through other search engines such as Google or Bing, the judge    added.  
    On Friday, the    Chinese search company did not immediately respond to a request    for comment. But the law firm representing Baidu in the case    said the ruling was a victory for the free speech rights of    Internet search engines.  
    It shows that    our courts protect the right of all media to choose what they    publish, said attorney Carey Ramos in a statement. That right    extends to Internet media as well as print media. And it    protects Chinese media as much as American media.  
    The activists who    filed the lawsuit against Baidu could not be reached for    comment.  
    Last year in    March, Furman had initially     dismissed the lawsuit because Baidu was not properly served    court papers, but later the case was allowed to    proceed.  
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U.S. judge rules Baidu's censorship is protected as free speech