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Google Blocks Pirate Search Results Prophylactically (torrentfreak.com)

Posted by msmash on from the next-up dept.

Google is accepting "prophylactic" takedown requests to keep pirated content out of its search results, an anonymous reader writes, citing a TorrentFreak report. From the article: Over the past year, we've noticed on a few occasions that Google is processing takedown notices for non-indexed links. While we assumed that this was an 'error' on the sender's part, it appears to be a new policy. "Google has critically expanded notice and takedown in another important way: We accept notices for URLs that are not even in our index in the first place. That way, we can collect information even about pages and domains we have not yet crawled," Caleb Donaldson, copyright counsel at Google writes. In other words, Google blocks URLs before they appear in the search results, as some sort of piracy vaccine. "We process these URLs as we do the others. Once one of these not-in-index URLs is approved for takedown, we prophylactically block it from appearing in our Search results, and we take all the additional deterrent measures listed above." Some submitters are heavily relying on the new feature, Google found. In some cases, the majority of the submitted URLs in a notice are not indexed yet.

3 of 38 comments (clear)

  1. Don't Be Free by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Google is, at this point, privatized corporate law enforcement. In more ways than one.

    You're either decentralizing ALL of your shit, or you are prey waiting to be milked for fun and profit.

  2. stop Google before it's too late by Reverend+Green · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Google sure does hate allowing poor people access to cultural data.

  3. Google is a Search Engine Not The Police by WindowsStar · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This is absolutely wrong!! Google is a Search Engine Not The Police of the Internet! That is like Google blocking searches for Gay's because it is illegal in some places. Or it is like blocking searches for Marijuana because it is Federally illegal. Google should NEVER block anything. If the someone has an issue with a search then they need to work on stopping the source not killing the messenger. My 2 cents!