[x-pubpol] Google ordered to censor 'torrent', 'megaupload' and more words

[Joly MacFie]

widely reported story, but it only affects auto-complete I think.  - j

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/19/french_court_google_copyright/

The French Supreme Court has ruled that Google should censor the words
‘torrent’, ‘rapidshare’ and ‘megaupload’ from its Instant and Autocomplete
search services.

Music industry group SNEP asked the court to stop the terms from coming up
in Google’s searches because, it claimed, the Chocolate Factory was thereby
facilitating piracy.

A lower court rejected the request from SNEP because it said that these
links did not constitute infringement of copyright in and of themselves.
However, the Supreme Court has reversed the
decision<http://www.courdecassation.fr/jurisprudence_2/premiere_chambre_civile_568/832_12_23884.html>,
saying that the relief sought by the group was likely to prevent or
partially stop infringements.

“This decision in principle is a first in France, which shows that search
engines should participate in the regulation of the internet,” SNEP chief
David El Sayegh said in a canned statement.

The Supreme Court said that Google couldn’t be held responsible for people
downloading illegal content, since they had to click through to another
site and make that decision for themselves, but banning the search terms
would make it more difficult for them to find their way to illicit stuff.

Google said it was disappointed by the court's ruling.

"Google Autocomplete algorithmically returns search queries that are a
reflection of the search activity of all web users," a spokesperson told *The
Register* in an emailed statement.

"Google takes online copyright very seriously, and we will keep working
with content creators in order to help them reach new audiences online and
protect against piracy."

The search firm actually already blocks “piracy-related” terms from
Autocomplete, but on its own terms. The web giant announced back in
December 2010<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/12/03/google_vows_to_better_protect_copyright/>
on
one of its blogs that it was taking steps to stop copyright infringement,
including blocking search terms closely associated with piracy.

However, as general counsel Kent Walker said at the time, it’s hard to know
for sure which terms are being used to find pirated gear and commentators
said at the time of the ban that Google seemed to have picked the terms
somewhat arbitrarily. For example, while BitTorrent won’t be autocompleted
by Google, popular torrent client BitComet will.

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