Google rejects request to blacklist 'pirate site' homepages

[HEXUS]

It took "no action" against 60 of the 81 accused pirate site homepages.

Read more.

[Mauley]

Well played Google.

[crossy]

TorrentFreak suggests that it is possibly due to the homepages of these websites only indirectly offering links to pirated content. Also notably it requires more than one click from the homepages to reach the actual copyright infringing contents.

If this was the case then I'm going to agree that Google's stand is probably justified. After all, if the sites in question are only offering links to other sites that then offer the "pirated" films, surely the MPAA should be going after those second set of sites.

Kind of like someone wanting the BBC site taken down because it has a news story with a link to the BNP website. Or wanting Al-Jazeera taken down because they show content from those murderous sociopaths in ISIS/ISIL. Although that last analogy is probably in poor taste...

[moeburn]

If torrent sites are responsible for people illegally downloading software, then travel agents are responsible for helping pedophiles get to Thailand.

[Saracen]

If this was the case then I'm going to agree that Google's stand is probably justified. After all, if the sites in question are only offering links to other sites that then offer the "pirated" films, surely the MPAA should be going after those second set of sites.

...

Depends how you read the article, and perhaps just how "indirect" the links were.

If the primary purpose of a site is access to pirate content, and it's just separed by a couple of clicks then I'd expect the MPAA to either come back after them again, or this to end up in court.

[Saracen]

If torrent sites are responsible for people illegally downloading software, then travel agents are responsible for helping pedophiles get to Thailand.

Only if a travel agent was set up geared towards taking paedo's to Thailand, and 90% or more of their passengers were identifiably paedo's. I venture to suggest any travel agent doing that would find himself/herself behind bars, PDQ.

[Spud1]

Hmm well this is mostly good news on the face of it, but it also highlights how much power Google have and perhaps how the quality of their search results have started to degrade in recent years. Google did also "take action" against a number of sites.

The recent frustrating ruling over "defaming" and the "Right to be forgotten" was bad enough, but if they are actively removing any links from their search results - to dodgy content or not - it's worrying. I know its been going on for some time but this story just highlights the fact.

I want rid of these filesharing and streaming sites just as much as the next person, but this isn't the way to go about it!

[Shahman]

Nice one google