Google censors themselves for RIAA/MPAA

[Jagos]

Link

It’s taken a while, but Google has finally caved in to pressure from the entertainment industries including the MPAA and RIAA. The search engine now actively censors terms including BitTorrent, torrent, utorrent, RapidShare and Megaupload from its instant and autocomplete services. The reactions from affected companies and services are not mild, with BitTorrent Inc., RapidShare and Vodo all speaking out against this act of commercial censorship.

So, I'm switching from using Google as a main search engine in a variety of ways. First, I don't use Chrome since they track. Second, I'm using google to go to a few new search engines where they don't track info. Third, I'm using proxy sites just in case. Yes, I happen to be paranoid sometimes.

Browser - SRWare Iron - No tracking
Ixquick - With the scare tactics they have on the first page, it worked and convinced me that they're pretty cool to look at.
Proxy sites. Eh, they're free. Just so long as they don't advertise, I'm good.

[ChaoticBrain]

Really, this makes no sense. If you don't know what torrents are, you're not going to choose it from the AutoComplete list. If you do know what they are, hiding them isn't going to stop you searching for them.

Anyway, I switched my toolbar search engine to Ask.com.

[Doc ock rokc]

...Do they even know how torrents work?
Do they know that several Corporations use torrents to distribute their work? Like BLIZZARD (they use it in their down loader) Heck I think most online games are distributed this way even Steam could be considered a torrent device.
I understand that they want to fight pirates but really trying to censor sites that might use torrents to spread their work is just going to make it where they shoot themselves in the foot.
Also Legally they can't use your Specific information unless you have a account on their site so they can't get on you for searching torrent.

[Hanuman]

Originally Posted by Doc ock rokc

...Do they even know how torrents work?
Do they know that several Corporations use torrents to distribute their work? Like BLIZZARD (they use it in their down loader) Heck I think most online games are distributed this way even Steam could be considered a torrent device.
I understand that they want to fight pirates but really trying to censor sites that might use torrents to spread their work is just going to make it where they shoot themselves in the foot.
Also Legally they can't use your Specific information unless you have a account on their site so they can't get on you for searching torrent.

Considering the current advertisements of Mac vs. PC I think the way the powers that be manage the public has radically changed.

If they can convince people that macs aren't pc's they can sure as hell convince people that steam isn't torrent.

[bluestarultor]

Originally Posted by Doc ock rokc

...Do they even know how torrents work?
Do they know that several Corporations use torrents to distribute their work? Like BLIZZARD (they use it in their down loader) Heck I think most online games are distributed this way even Steam could be considered a torrent device.
I understand that they want to fight pirates but really trying to censor sites that might use torrents to spread their work is just going to make it where they shoot themselves in the foot.
Also Legally they can't use your Specific information unless you have a account on their site so they can't get on you for searching torrent.

Key word: legally. We all know they're scraping for ways to bypass that. RIAA is already flooding government records-people with massive batch requests to check if people are pirating music with no evidence or explanation. Remember the proposed policy change brought up a few months ago?


That said, I'm split on the issue. There's no laws concerning this stuff right now, or at the very least the whole topic is a mess of convoluted gray area. Google is looking out for its own interests, but on the other hand, they're the big guys and should be pushing back. Now, as was observed, this really isn't hurting much, since most everyone knows about torrents anyway and those who don't aren't going to be using them. But it is a symbolic loss, essentially forsaking an entire class of valid, useful software because of paranoia and fear-mongering on the part of the industry. Google basically just broke down under pressure and said "yup, dem torrentz is wrong (now get off my back)" and opened the door to a ton of unnecessary follow-up that'll see similar treatment being forced on other search engines.

Like, really, nobody's stopping pirates. Ever. We haven't been able to since "don't copy that floppy." Now it's easier than ever.

[Torque]

want torrents? thepiratebay.org Problem solved. Google is teh dumb

[phil_]

Torque, dude, we all pretend we don't know those things here. Hush up.

[BitVyper]

How does it censor them? 'Cause I'm just trying some searches here, and it seems to work just fine?

Edit: Ooooh, it doesn't autocomplete them. Well.... that's awfully silly.

[Krylo]

It also doesn't do the instant search thing, where it starts searching while you're typing.

It is very silly, though. It's not like pirates are too lazy to type out words.

[Torque]

Originally Posted by phil_

Torque, dude, we all pretend we don't know those things here. Hush up.

I have no clue what torrents are. I'm just saying if you were the kind of person who might be looking for whatever those are you might look to that website. I dunno. It has something to do with water maybe? Torrents and Pirates? Seems the logical conclusion to me.