Google: Pirate Bay booted off search by mistake

Update 3 p.m. PT: To include an updated comment from Google.

Google said on Friday that an error caused the search engine to remove The Pirate Bay from its search pages.

"Google received a (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) take-down request that erroneously listed Thepiratebay.org, and as a result, this URL was accidentally removed from the Google search index," Google said in a statement. "We are now correcting the removal, and you can expect to see Thepiratebay.org back in Google search results this afternoon."

Later, Google updated it's statement: "The removal appears to be an internal error and not part of a DMCA request."

Separately, The Pirate Bay's site appeared down Friday afternoon at 1:15 p.m. PT, at least in many U.S. areas.

Google didn't provide any details about what caused the error but at this point it doesn't seem to be some kind of orchestrated effort to bring down The Pirate Bay--at least on Google's part. According to Google, it was just a goof.

The DMCA's safe-harbor provision is designed to shield Internet service providers from being held liable for copyright infringement committed by users. But the provision has a certain set of requirements that ISPs must meet, and one of them includes promptly removing infringing material.

The case is a bit ironic, in that it's well-established that The Pirate Bay does not store any unauthorized copies of films, music, TV shows, or other content.

Indeed, the service can help people find pirated content, but so can a lot of search engines, including Google. The notion that the Pirate Bay would be pulled down because of a single copyright claim is sort of humorous.

If that's all that was needed to have the site kicked off, it would have happened years ago. The music and film industries, as well as other copyright owners, have complained about The Pirate Bay for years.

Peter Sunde-Kolmisoppi told Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagblated that The Pirate Bay's attorney sent a letter to both Google and the companies that are suspected of being behind the allegations and demanded that the Pirate Bay be returned to Google's index. The Pirate Bay accused Google of censoring a competitor and of stifling free expression, the paper reported.

[redmarine]

Meh... I've lost faith in Google a long time ago. sure they make good applications but hell... What's up with this?

[pentest]

They do?

[ecotony]

Arrrrgh!
Long Live T.P.B!
Arrrgh!

[jaw69]

Arrrrrgh!!!!!
YES!!!!!!! I agree......
Arrrrgh!

[Dalkorian]

Arrrrgh!
Take what you can. Give nothing back!

[paulej]

The DMCA protects service providers against actions taken by its users and says absolutely nothing about a search engine that indexes a web site. Why on Earth would Google ever remove a web site from it search index based on any DMCA claim? Is it because there might be copies of the site's material on the site residing in Google's servers?

So, some person could post a comment to a site like CNET that includes copyrighted text and the copyright holder could then send a DMCA letter to Google and have CNET pulled out of the index? I think that's a bit much. I can understand requesting a particular page (to remove infringing content), but a whole site?

[Peter N. Glaskowsky]

Sorry, paulej, but you made a false statement there. The DMCA also prohibits linking to pirated content, which is reasonable, since that's pretty much a definition of contributory copyright infringement.

The Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act, which defines the Safe Harbor conditions for avoiding prosecution for DMCA violations, says that service providers must respond to demands to take down links, too. See 17 U.S.C. section 512(d).

So it's possible, depending on how one interprets the law, that it could have been appropriate for Google to remove a specific link to some page on The Pirate Bay.

Of course it would never be appropriate for Google to remove ALL links to that or any other website in response to a single takedown notice, but Google could legitimately remove The Pirate Bay from its listings on the basis that most of its pages link to pirated materials (perhaps after receiving some number of similar complaints; the law is vague on this point but does refer to "facts or circumstances from which infringing activity is apparent").

I believe that Google does omit some websites from its listings for this reason, but I don't know if they've ever admitted to it. When I was researching the widespread copyright violations at scribd.com some time ago (which have been mostly resolved since then), I found several other websites carrying pirated content that just didn't show up in Google at all.

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[Vegaman_Dan]

Yes, it was purely a 'mistake'. It's just coincidental that they received a take down notice and then this 'mistake' happened until someone outside pointed out publically what happened, and then this was corrected.

While none of it can be proven yeah or nay, the appearance of this is highly suspect, and that's not something Google can really have added to their growing public reputation of being.... well... shady.

[david_levy]

Google updated _its_ statement, not "it's" statement.

[BIGELLOW]

People sure like making a mountain out of a mole hill these days.

A site vanishes for a few hours from Google's index, News at 11.

Amazon's site gets slow during Black Friday shopping, News as 11.

Is this all a part of a right-wing conspiracy? Maybe the Illuminati are involved? Something sure is suspect, here.

Look, it's simple. To err is human. To really screw up requires a computer. Google's got hundreds of thousands of computers to screw up with. One little hiccup is hardly worthy to write home about. Relax. Breathe. Enjoy life.