Google Starts Censoring BitTorrent, RapidShare and More

[Aussie Rebel]

Interesting stuff

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.

google censorship The entertainment industries? quest to root out piracy on the Internet has yet again resulted in commercial censorship. A few weeks ago Google announced that it would start filtering ?piracy related? terms from its ?Autocomplete? and ?Instant? services and today they quietly rolled out this questionable feature.

Without a public notice Google has compiled a seemingly arbitrary list of keywords for which auto-complete is no longer available. Although the impact of this decision does not currently affect full search results, it does send out a strong signal that Google is willing to censor its services proactively, and to an extent that is far greater than many expected.

Among the list of forbidden keywords are ?uTorrent?, a hugely popular piece of entirely legal software and ?BitTorrent?, a file transfer protocol and the name of San Fransisco based company BitTorrent Inc. As of today, these keywords will no longer be suggested by Google when you type in the first letter, nor will they show up in Google Instant.

All combinations of the word ?torrent? are also completely banned. This means that ?Ubuntu torrent? will not be suggested as a user types in Ubuntu, and the same happens to every other combination ending in the word torrent. This of course includes the titles of popular films and music albums, which is the purpose of Google?s banlist.

TorrentFreak contacted BitTorrent Inc. for a reaction, and Simon Morris told TorrentFreak that he believes the scope of this filter is too broad.

?We respect Google?s right to determine algorithms to deliver appropriate search results to user requests. That being said, 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,? Morris said.

?A quick search for ?BitTorrent? currently returns a variety of legitimate and useful links, including company information, our software, our open-source protocol, and more. What Google may not realize is that our technology is used for many purposes that provide significant value to the technology industry, companies, artists and consumers at large,? he added.
Google?s new ?Piracy? filter (no autocomplete)

google piracy filter

What is most surprising about the new filter is that the keywords appear to be picked arbitrarily. It includes BitTorrent clients such as uTorrent and Xunlei, but not BitComet and Vuze. While cyberlockers such as RapidShare and Megaupload are banned, prominent sites such as 4shared, HotFile and MediaFire are not.

In addition, all the names of popular torrent sites including The Pirate Bay are not included in Google?s banlist either. BitTorrent?s Simon Morris agrees that this is odd, to say the least.

?There?s no reason for Google to throttle search results for our trademarks, including BitTorrent, µTorrent 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.?

Morris further points out that the inclusion of Xunlei is a little hypocritical since Google is one of the investors in the Chinese BitTorrent client.

?We?d also like to point out that while Google doesn?t enable autocomplete for Xunlei (China?s largest software client that uses the BitTorrent protocol) Google did invest $5 million in the company in 2006, according to reports,? Morris says, adding, ?We sincerely hope Google will recognize the value of BitTorrent and reevaluate this decision expeditiously.?

RapidShare is not pleased with Google?s new filter either, at least not with its current scope in today?s roll-out.

?We knew about Google?s plans for quite a few weeks now. 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. We believe it was the wrong decision to remove the term ?RapidShare? from the search suggestions,? RapidShare told TorrentFreak.

?RapidShare is one of the most popular websites worldwide. Every day hundreds of thousands of users rely on our services to pursue their perfectly legitimate interests. 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 company added.

Indeed, RapidShare has certainly touched a nerve here. It is clear that this filter is the result of pressure from the entertainment industries, which is not at all in the interests of users. Now that Google has begun proactively censoring their services for commercial reasons, more companies will demand the same. At the same time, the entertainment industries will continue to pressure Google to go even further, and censor the actual search results.

Apparently Google has decided that its users should not be searching for the keyword BitTorrent, so why list any results then? It?s the beginning of the end.

Jamie King, the founder of Vodo ? a platform where artists can share their work with million of people at no cost ? agrees with this assessment. Searching for one of their perfectly legal releases on Google used to suggest the word ?torrent? with a link to the download page, but not anymore.

?Google already showed it will censor for the highest bidder ? China Inc. springs to mind. Now it?s doing it for MPAA & Co.,? King told TorrentFreak.

?I guess it?s simple: our favorite 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.?

Indeed, Google is going down the wrong path by willingly and broadly censoring its services to please a few big companies. This is not the way to get rid of piracy, it?s the way to a corporate controlled Internet. Google may have been proud to leave China because of its political censorship, but it should be ashamed of promoting commercial censorship worldwide.

source: http://torrentfreak.com/google-start...d-more-110126/

[cr4zy1van]

this is good news for the porn and music industry.

[Ace_luffy]

goodnews on the entertainment industry specially on pornworld

[Agent 488]

very old news. not removed from the serps, just instant/autocomplete so who cares? same as porn terms.

[fatfoo]

I can see that Google has become against piracy on the Internet. Google started filtering "piracy related" terms.

[Caligari]

just the beginning, soon the butt torrents etc will be wiped from 90% of searches

[18teens]

A step in the right direction.

[Lester Burnham]

There seems to be a slippery slope issue here. Basically, an industry group pressures a leading search engine to censor certain words. What's next? Now that Google has shown that it is willing to cave to public or private interests, who is to say they don't target other "taboo" subject matter, e.g., porn, guns, etc., etc.

[FlexxAeon]

Originally Posted by Aussie Rebel

Although the impact of this decision does not currently affect full search results....

thats where i stopped.

[baddog]

Originally Posted by Lester Burnham

There seems to be a slippery slope issue here. Basically, an industry group pressures a leading search engine to censor certain words. What's next? Now that Google has shown that it is willing to cave to public or private interests, who is to say they don't target other "taboo" subject matter, e.g., porn, guns, etc., etc.

Read it again. All it effects are auto-complete results. Besides, it is their game they can do whatever they want with it.

Slippery slope? Not hardly. Go to Bing if you don't like it.

[Agent 488]

as usual no one reads or understands. nothing was removed from the index. only from google instant.

porn terms have already been removed.

[Lester Burnham]

Originally Posted by baddog

Read it again. All it effects are auto-complete results. Besides, it is their game they can do whatever they want with it.

Slippery slope? Not hardly. Go to Bing if you don't like it.

Starts with auto-complete, then moves on to something else in the future IMHO. It always starts with a small nudge.

They can do whatever they want, and their new rules don't impact my searching habits. But people are bound to bitch and moan when Google does this to stuff they care about.

I prefer Bing for image search

[GregE]

10, 9, 8, 7 . . .

Gideon should be in here any second now.

[baddog]

Originally Posted by Lester Burnham

But people are bound to bitch and moan when Google does this to stuff they care about.

Are you talking about "people" that utilize G or those that attempt to manipulate G?

If it becomes something that negatively effects the end user, they will go elsewhere and G will change again.

We aren't talking Apple here.

[BIGTYMER]

Umm.. Yet they run YouTube.

[will76]

Originally Posted by GregE

10, 9, 8, 7 . . .

Gideon should be in here any second now.

All of you give the guy too much attention. He is just a nobody punk, failure in adult who latched on to something that made him feel important in the eyes of other nobody punk kids, anti capitalist, and hippie liberals.

So he learned some basic laws and concepts, he went from being just another insignificant nobody to now everyone knows his name on here and gives him way too much attention. Just ignore him, the pro piracy group of people really are a sub class of humans. Bunch of punk kids, broke dicks, and people who are anti making money, liberal entitlement, anti establishment types. They always going to be broke dicks and outcasts their whole lives, no point in even giving them attention by arguing with them. It's why they are here.

If you had 1000 random people and separated out the 50 or so who honestly believed that everything should be free and it was ok for them to "share" steal, it would be one scary, weird group of people, most under 25 half of which have probably never been laid.

[Lamis]

torrent sites and file sharing sites still show 1st in google with site links...

millions of hits go to these sites from google.

they aint censoring shit.

[baddog]

Originally Posted by Lamis

torrent sites and file sharing sites still show 1st in google with site links...

millions of hits go to these sites from google.

they aint censoring shit.

Did you read any of it?

[jonnydoe]

aint is not a word.

[Miguel T]

Great move Google!!!

[kevlar1080]

i think it's a grrreat idea

[PromoterX]

Originally Posted by FlexxAeon

thats where i stopped.

You shouldn't because autocomplete is useful. So useful that sometimes I don't even realize i'm using it... and i've been on the internet before Googles domain was even registered. I'm sure millions of others are also using autocomplete as well, and not even realizing it either.

This is not good news. This is only the first step of more steps to come.. make no mistake, the entertainment industry will stop at nothing to ensure you continue to buy music, using their approved distribution methods, which maximizes profit for them. They couldn't give a rats ass about you.

To that end I haven't bought a CD for myself in years, and I bought HUNDREDS of them like a lot of other people when the technology first came out. After MP3's showed up Napster, that was literally the end of me buying music, and I haven't since then. Do people still pay $25 bucks for a CD? Hilarious.

[Archivist]

google.com/search?q=rapidshare

doesn't appear to be filtering anything

[BIGTYMER]

Originally Posted by Archivist

google.com/search?q=rapidshare

doesn't appear to be filtering anything

This is only on the live search or whatever they call it. Where you start typing the search term on the home page and it puts up suggestions.

[Emil]

Originally Posted by cr4zy1van

this is good news for the porn and music industry.

Yeah! I jut bought 4 CDs! Now I just need a CD-player!

[Roald]

Originally Posted by Agent 488

very old news. not removed from the serps, just instant/autocomplete so who cares? same as porn terms.

exactly, if this is a step in the right direction of G removing them from the SERPS should we start worying about porn being removed too?

Nothing too exciting sofar.

[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by Lester Burnham

There seems to be a slippery slope issue here. Basically, an industry group pressures a leading search engine to censor certain words. What's next? Now that Google has shown that it is willing to cave to public or private interests, who is to say they don't target other "taboo" subject matter, e.g., porn, guns, etc., etc.

Google isn't a public service, it's a company and those who own it are free to do as they please within the law.

I recently did a poll of people who thought the Internet should be exempt of laws. Most people voted yes.

They have no idea of the slippery slope that would put them on.

[ottopottomouse]

Originally Posted by Agent 488

very old news. not removed from the serps, just instant/autocomplete so who cares? same as porn terms.

So old I checked the date of the article before reading it

[czarina]

finally!!

[BlackCrayon]

Originally Posted by baddog

Read it again. All it effects are auto-complete results. Besides, it is their game they can do whatever they want with it.

Slippery slope? Not hardly. Go to Bing if you don't like it.

porn terms are already banned from google instant. not sure about auto complete but i wouldn't be surprised.

[gideongallery]

Originally Posted by Agent 488

as usual no one reads or understands. nothing was removed from the index. only from google instant.

porn terms have already been removed.

Originally Posted by GregE

10, 9, 8, 7 . . .

Gideon should be in here any second now.

no need someone already pointed out how this was old news.

btw if you do a search you will find a thread where i pointed out the auto complete for search terms of popular movies auto completed to torrent

in essense google was directing people who were searching for generic information about the movie, to torrent first, imdb , wiki etc later

this is just stopping that directed action, as long as they don't remove the serp it not censorship, just the elimination of prioritized inducement.

[gideongallery]

Originally Posted by will76

If you had 1000 random people and separated out the 50 or so who honestly believed that everything should be free and it was ok for them to "share" steal, it would be one scary, weird group of people, most under 25 half of which have probably never been laid.

considering your one of the people who want me to show you "put your shit on the tape cassette" solution for free i find it interesting that you claim i am the one who expects everything to be free.

for the record i have never said that, i have only argued for the fair use right to content to be respected (not being forced to pay twice for the right to view shit)

[Barry-xlovecam]

PR move and shows the CYA that Google's Legal Dept weighed in on.

By doing this Google can say we are not actively promoting illegal filesharing (auto-complete).

Google is still indexing the torrent sites and for a reason ? Google's argument is that "we are like a library, we don't endorse any book but we make it available."

[Lassitor]

Originally Posted by Lester Burnham

There seems to be a slippery slope issue here. Basically, an industry group pressures a leading search engine to censor certain words. What's next? Now that Google has shown that it is willing to cave to public or private interests, who is to say they don't target other "taboo" subject matter, e.g., porn, guns, etc., etc.

I tend to agree with Lester. Censorship at first seem like a good idea as a solution to some problems, but in the end it tends to just become the problem itself.

[Owner]

tl;dr...

[epitome]

Is this why I am having a spectacular month?

I will be a very happy guy if every month is like January has shaped up to be.

[epitome]

Originally Posted by Agent 488

as usual no one reads or understands. nothing was removed from the index. only from google instant.

porn terms have already been removed.

Fuck, I didn't read enough myself.

Eh, still happy this month. Just wish I could say it was because of something like this so I know it's not a fluke.

[nikki99]

good news

[Agent 488]

the replies in this thread are depressing. god help us.

[{Psycho}]

Great news

[FlexxAeon]

Originally Posted by PromoterX

You shouldn't because autocomplete is useful. So useful that sometimes I don't even realize i'm using it... and i've been on the internet before Googles domain was even registered. I'm sure millions of others are also using autocomplete as well, and not even realizing it either....

when autocomplete first came out, porn was automatically omitted.

my traffic didn't budge.

if people want their torrents, one extra keystroke isn't gonna do shit

oh and i was also in the interwebs before google.com was registered. not sure what that means but....yeah

[blackmonsters]

This doesn't do much but at least it's a statement about piracy.

[Robbie]

Originally Posted by PromoterX

To that end I haven't bought a CD for myself in years, and I bought HUNDREDS of them like a lot of other people when the technology first came out. After MP3's showed up Napster, that was literally the end of me buying music, and I haven't since then. Do people still pay $25 bucks for a CD? Hilarious.

Off to "ignore" you go. Grow up and learn to stop stealing.