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Google and Bing Have No Obligation To Censor Searches For Torrents (betanews.com)

Posted by msmash on from the keeping-things-clean,-or-not dept.

Microsoft and Google are under no obligation to weed out 'torrent' results from their respective search engines, the High Court of Paris has ruled. BetaNews adds: French music industry group SNEP went to court on behalf of a trio of artists, requesting that Microsoft and Google automatically filter out links to pirated material. The group had called for a complete block on searches that include the word 'torrent' as well as blocking sites whose name includes the word. The court found that SNEP's request was far too broad, saying: "SNEP's requests are general, and pertain not to a specific site but to all websites accessible through the stated methods, without consideration for identifying or even determining the site's content, on the premise that the term 'Torrent' is necessarily associated with infringing content".The court added that 'torrent' is a common noun, which has a range of different meanings.

4 of 62 comments (clear)

  1. Re:.torrent!=pirated by Fire_Wraith · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yes.
    Torrents are a protocol relating to efficient and distributed file transfer, that in no way is inherently piratical or illegal. There are legitimate uses for the protocol, even if piracy of music and entertainment is a fairly common use, too. Even if these groups got what they wanted, and people weren't allowed to search for "torrent", guess about how long before a new term would come into common use meaning the exact same thing? Hint: not long.

  2. Re:.torrent!=pirated by c · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Even if these groups got what they wanted, and people weren't allowed to search for "torrent", guess about how long before a new term would come into common use meaning the exact same thing?

    I'm fairly sure "magnet" already works as an alternative.

    Well... "magnet -juggalo", just to be safe.

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    Log in or piss off.
  3. Re:So you're telling me... by Opportunist · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Cut them some slack, they're French. They probably didn't even know there's any other language where that funny word "torrent" actually means something and isn't just some made up cute term.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  4. Re:Streaming by TapeCutter · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If they had their way you would have to insert your credit card into the computer before it would allow you to browse the internet.

    --
    And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.