Google whacked
Google has bowed to pressure from the entertainment industry and has started to censor various terms such as ‘torrent' from its Instant and Autocomplete services.
Censored terms include: BitTorrent, torrent, utorrent, RapidShare and Megaupload, according to news site Torrent Freak and affected companies are unsurprisingly miffed about Google's move.
Apparently entertainment industry bodies MPAA and RIAA have put pressure on Google to apply commercial censorship as part of their crack down on piracy over the net. The story goes that Google agreed to filter ‘piracy related' terms from its Instant and Autocomplete services a couple of weeks back but has now quietly started to apply the filters.
Some might argue that its move is not a big deal seeing as Google users can still use the search engine to find the censored sites - they just will not be suggested by Goggle after typing a few letters - but some commentators have argued that it is a sign that the search engine, whose slogan is ‘don't be evil' is able to be pressured into censoring its services.
According to Torrent Freak, all combinations of the word ‘torrent' are banned and therefore not suggested by Google. Perhaps unsurprisingly, BitTorrent's Simon Morris told the website that he thinks the scope of Google's filter is ‘too broad'.
"Our company's trademarked name is fairly unique, and we're pretty confident that anyone typing the first six or seven letters deserves the same easy access to results as with any other company search," he reportedly said.
Torrent Freak reported that the ketwords ‘appear to be picked arbitrarily' as while cyberlockers like RapidShare and Megaupload have been filtered, 4shared, HotFile and MediaFire have not. Similarly, names of popular torrent sites including The Pirate Bay have not been censored.
Morris reportedly said: "There's no reason for Google to throttle search results for our trademarks, including BitTorrent and torrent. Indeed, they do still enable autocomplete for many third-party clients that use the BitTorrent protocol, including BitComet, BitLord, and even sites like The Pirate Bay and Isohunt."
RapiShare is also apparently miffed with Google and told Torrent Freak:"We embrace that certain search suggestions will not put a wrong complexion on RapidShare anymore, but we are concerned that at the same time the legitimate interests of our users will also be affected."
The firm reportedly said ‘hundreds of thousands' of people use its site for legitimate interests every day, making it one of the world's most popular websites.
"That is why Google has obviously gone too far with censoring the results of its suggest algorithm. A search engine's results should reflect the users' interests and not Google's or anybody else's," the firm reportedly added.
Some people have suggested Google's decision to capitulate to certain industries could mark the start of an unwelcome trend, where more businesses or bodies could demand the same treatment leading to a search engine that does not represent the interests of its users, but of powerful businesses. It also does not seem likely that the entertainment industry will stop putting pressure on Google either.
Jamie King, the founder of Vodo, (a platform for artists to share their work free of charge) subscribes to this fear and reportedly said: "Google already showed it will censor for the highest bidder - China Inc. springs to mind. Now it's doing it for MPAA & Co."
"I guess it's simple: our favourite search monopoly cares less about helping the thousands of independent creators who use BitTorrent to distribute legal, free-to-share content than they do about protecting the interests of Big Media in its death throes," he reportedly added.
