Google Filters Torrents From Search Results
Written by Ernesto on August 08, 2007Google has been filtering its search results for years. That’s proven very useful for the Chinese government, and of course content owner representatives like the MPAA and RIAA. According to Google, the filtering of torrents from the search results is a response to the DMCA complaints they receive.
So, apparently one day Google decided that it is illegal in nearly every country of the world to host a .torrent file that (allegedly) links to infringing material. Strange, because there is no legal precedent for this decision in most countries.
The owner of SumoTorrent told TorrentFreak that he discovered that A search on Google for sumotorrent now triggers the following message at the bottom of the results page:
“In response to a complaint we received under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we have removed 1 result(s) from this page. If you wish, you may read the DMCA complaint that caused the removal(s) at ChillingEffects.org.”
A search for other BitTorrent sites like Torrentspy and Torrentreactor comes up with the same message (note. the sites are still indexed but some results are removed). Strangely enough, for torrentreactor it only shows up for a search on the .com domain.
According to Google the filtered search results are caused by DMCA complaints , but the owner of SumoTorrent is a little surprised by this. He has no clue why the “content owner” didn’t contact him directly because he generally processes takedown notices within 24 hours. Unfortunately the link Google provides to the complaint in question doesn’t work, and a search on ChillingEffects.org doesn’t really help much either.
One of the few BitTorrent related DMCA complaints Google received concerned Paris Hilton’s famous . This notice was sent by Jim Salomon, the brother of Rick Salomon who used to date Paris. The complaint is hilarious, Jim even complains why it takes Google more than 4 hours to remove the .torrent in question. Funny or not, eventually Google decided to remove the .torrent file in question from their search results.
What Google has done isn’t really that revolutionary because most administrators of BitTorrent sites take down torrent files themselves upon request. However, the main reason for this is that they don’t want endless legal battles. They see it as a service to the content owners to remove the .torrent files if a decent request is made. But I kind of hoped that Google would make a stand here, wishful thinking so it seems.So what do you think? Should Google filter their results like this?
Previously: Television Studios Embrace BitTorrent
Next: uTorrent Takes on the BitTorrent Scammers
73 Responses
Pages: « 1 [2] 3 » Show All
I’m in Canada, and I can’t even get to Google.com…it automatically redirects to Google.ca
The .ca domain lets you search not only for the torrent indexers, but for the torrents themselves if you so choose to use Google that way.
I’d like to see what the censorship looks like in the .com domain though…
heyya the .cn thing shows the sqare just fine, altho I can’t read chinese..lolz
anyway…
the if u’d like to see goes to this page: (notice the domain name)
http://www.chillingeffects.org/notice.cgi?sID=3578
and the top says the following
Notice Unavailable
DMCA (Copyright) Complaint to Google
The notice is not available.
Chilling Effects serves as a clearinghouse for cease-and-desist notices. Chilling Effects is not the sender of these notices, and is not responsible for removing pages from the web or search engine listings. If you believe a web page or site was wrongly removed, you should contact the ISP or search engine who removed the site. In the case of an improper DMCA notification, you may wish to file a counter-notification.
You can still find torrents directly in google’s search results with the “filetype” search modifier..
[quote comment="144121"]I’m in Canada, and I can’t even get to Google.com…it automatically redirects to Google.ca
The .ca domain lets you search not only for the torrent indexers, but for the torrents themselves if you so choose to use Google that way.
I’d like to see what the censorship looks like in the .com domain though…[/quote]
I’m in Canada too, and I use Google.com all the time. I use the Google toolbar in Safari. I’m able to “fool” it into getting all the hits I need for any specific torrent, or torrent site. Even if they are filtering SOMETHING, it’s not blocking me from accessing anything that I’m actually looking for.
Extension searches still apply to torrents. (for example, “insert file name here” ext:torrent) Although, searching by extension has never yielded that many results in the first place…
Google disgusts me, seeing as they are in cahoots with the Chinese government in controlling what people can search. Anyone know a search engine thats like google? Because I want to boycott them. AS silly as it sounds, there are plenty of Chinese that face censorship everyday. Do you want the Federal Gov to tell you want and want not you can do? Its already happening.
I searched for several torrent sites and particular torrent files and received unfiltered results each time. I am in the Southern US. This story is bogus.
[quote comment="144081"][quote comment="144079"]All searches are working for me…I’m in Georgia, US right now…
But I agree wholeheartedly with badnews up there[/quote]
Try this:
http://www.google.com/search?q=sumotorrent
And scroll to the bottom of the results, you should see the message there.[/quote]This link didn’t work for me neither.
I had to turn the Google filter off and go through multiple pages to find the notice at the bottom of the page (http://www.google.com/search?q=sumotorrent&start=500&filter=0).
[quote comment="144007"]How about doing a post on google-alternatives then?[/quote]
i agree, it would be a great idea to do a entry on web search engines, i know search.com works pretty good but is relativelye unkown.
i would be interested to see some other sites.
Works fine from India!
Also in Italy with italian version those searches doesn’t remove anything; probably it apply only in US where the DMCA is effective.
And now i remember Bush (or who for hime) a few weeks ago telling that other countries of the world should make US laws their laws……
you are all a bunch of morons. google can do whatever the fuck they want because its their company. they are doing business and not public service.
if you dont like what google is doing, find another search engine or better yet make your own one. geeezzz…….
[quote comment="144155"]You can still find torrents directly in google’s search results with the “filetype” search modifier..[/quote]
I’m nit saying that Google removed oll torrents from the search results (read the article).
The filtering has been confirmed in Europe, US and Asia. However not everyone gets similar results, why is unclear to me at this point.
Here is what you do…You keep morphing the term “Torrent” into something else.
You rename the concept of Torrent to
another word they can’t filter…like “Bush Tor” or “Government Tor” or “Republican Tor” so it just makes it harder and pisses off others who are getting censored by Google.
Play it “their” Orwellian way…and why not? They love to morph words and ideas for their own use..why not the rest of us?
Soooo they filtered out one file…that big name torrent sites have been doing for years in compliance with the DCMA…what’s the difference again?
i just noticed.. torrentfreak is just like google. they filter out comments too. did my last comment about doing a bit more research hurt you mr poster?? lol…
[quote comment="144531"]i just noticed.. torrentfreak is just like google. they filter out comments too. did my last comment about doing a bit more research hurt you mr poster?? lol…[/quote]
I removed 2 comments repeating the same argument to clean up the discussion.
We verified the filtering on several continents, so stating that we didn’t do any research doesn’t hurt me at all ;)
8 references to this post
Pages: « 1 [2] 3 » Show All
Responses are closed
All remaining responses will continue to be archived. Use the TorrentFreak forums if you want to discuss something.