AfterDawn: News

Google begins filtering certain torrent results from its search engine

According to TorrentFreak, Google has begun filtering certain torrent results from its search engine, those that have been specifically mentioned to them in DMCA complaints.

Searching for some torrents, or even torrent trackers such as "sumotorrent" or "torrentreactor" will bring you a message on the bottom of the results screen that says, “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.”



Google says the filtered results are caused only because of DMCA complaints but Chillingeffects.org is not very helpful in trying to find the complaints.

Although torrent sites usually take down files upon request within 24 hours, it is kind of sad to see that Google has begun filtering their content in the same way. Google China anyone?

Source:
TF

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 11 Aug 2007 8:36

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• 15 comments

• Pop_Smith

  Why is google doing this? I have seen the "DMCA complaint" before when I was searching for something other then a torrent though so its not just torrents.
  
  I believe that they shouldn't filter anything, except child pr0n as that should be filtered because of what it is. I love how they will filter torrents etc. but they won't filter child pr0n out of the results. Thats disgusting and something should be done about it.
  
  Peace

  11.8.2007 08:56 #1

• nobrainer

  ah well, good by free speech!
  
  Originally posted by George Orwell: "In a world of universal deceit,
  
  telling the truth is a revolutionary act."since post, been kidnapped (rendition) from the uk, labelled a dissident and locked in one of the usa's secret jails and awaiting, secret death penalty for helping terrorists by posting negative opinions that could encourage terrorism!

  11.8.2007 09:06 #2

• vinny13

  I hope they aren't doing anything with these filtered torrents, especially what I'm downloading now. Otherwise, me and 12,000-14,000 people are screwed.

  11.8.2007 10:17 #3

• Unfocused

  So Google can stand up to the powers that be and refuse to take down matches for works of literature, but they are more than happy to filter out torrent results.
  
  Bunch of hypocrites over there at the Google office.

  11.8.2007 13:16 #4

• rickster9

  Ummmm....Torrentfreak may have jumped the gun; when I searched on google.com (and .ca) no such message is displayed and it appears that the search results have not been filtered.
  
  In fact all of the searches they note in the article and in the comments work.
  
  something is not quite right with something .... and if they are referring to the last page reference to the dcma - this has always been posted - it's not new

  11.8.2007 14:37 #5

• hikaricor

  If anyone else wants to say it's not actually working as described, here ya go.
  
  I believe I have seen this before as others mentioned. This is not new, and doubtful to have any real effect. If you're using google to find your torrents, just change your habits and find a more reliable method. Or use newsgroups. :p
  
  
  

  11.8.2007 19:06 #6

• M4DHATT3R

  Google was revolutionary when it refused to hand over search results data to the government when reqested (like a year or two ago) but now it kisses the a$$es of DMCA by filtering search results???? Come on Google, don't become another mindless tool.

  11.8.2007 20:56 #7

• SamNz

  tsk tsk google not good

  11.8.2007 23:30 #8

• ZippyDSM

  Sadly I no longer trust google to show me the results I look for, so whos a good replacement for google?

  12.8.2007 03:40 #9

• Krmnnghia

  So you take away the ability to see where a torrent is located but if you want to search for 4 midget mexicans having sex with a donkey while praying to jesus its not a problem. LOL

  13.8.2007 05:04 #10

• emugamer

  Originally posted by Krmnnghia: So you take away the ability to see where a torrent is located but if you want to search for 4 midget mexicans having sex with a donkey while praying to jesus its not a problem. LOLROFL...it would be a problme if it was a Paramount Pictures movie ;-)

  13.8.2007 07:52 #11

• blackvamp

  Yahoo! anyone?

  13.8.2007 12:24 #12

• Unfocused

  I've used AltaVista for a long time now, and have never had any problems finding what I needed. Legit or otherwise.

  13.8.2007 21:25 #13

• borhan9

  Well Google needs to put this disclaimer in their results only because they do not want more lawsuits to follow.

  17.8.2007 18:36 #14

• maitland

  This is kind of lame I guess...
  ,,,
  ???
  \\\
  \\\
  <<<
  <__________***
  
  but I've never used google to search for a torrent, and I never encounter difficulty finding whatever I seek.

  18.8.2007 21:58 #15