AfterDawn: Tech news

Google begins censoring all torrent-related searches

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 30 Jan 2011 2:20 User comments (33)

Google begins censoring all torrent-related searches Earlier this week, Google began censoring any search queries with references to torrents from its 'instant search' and 'autocomplete' features.
Last month, the search giant promised it would begin "making copyright work better online" whilst blocking "terms that are closely associated with piracy" from autocomplete.

BitTorrent services have been up in arms since the move, pointing out that there are many legal torrents out there that are being censored, like films that have been released for free by directors and made available via torrent sites.

A couple of the banned search terms are "utorrent," "bittorrent," "rapidshare," and "megaupload." However, other cyberlockers like Fileserve and HotFile are not banned. Suprisingly, "The Pirate Bay," is still a searchable term.



Rapidshare expressed the concerns of companies now censored:

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.


Of course, regular search results will not be censored, just autocomplete and instant results.

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33 user comments

130.1.2011 14:29

Thats a fancy way of saying Google gave in. I for one will be changing search engine lol

230.1.2011 14:46
lissenup2
Inactive

Just searched for "Utorrent"..............came back without issue, though it doesn't come up in "autocomplete" but who cares.

And ummm........as for Google even contemplating this move???...............F YOU!

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 30 Jan 2011 @ 2:48

330.1.2011 15:26

this is just a way of google saying this looks like we are doing something about piracy and it looks good but at the same time it's not really doing anything. It's all political and for looks doesn't actually change much.

430.1.2011 15:29

Title is misleading and this is old news.

530.1.2011 15:49

meh. I did a search earlier and had no problems.

630.1.2011 15:56
lissenup2
Inactive

Originally posted by GryphB:
meh. I did a search earlier and had no problems.
Again...........it still searches but the "autofill" does not display Utorrent, rapidshare, etc

730.1.2011 15:57
lissenup2
Inactive

Originally posted by hikaricor:
Title is misleading and this is old news.
I have not been aware of this nor did I "hear" of this so called "old news" so either back your statement up with dates and ocurrences or pipe down.

830.1.2011 15:58

...I thought this is fake info but its real??? Frak you Google!

930.1.2011 16:21

Originally posted by lissenup2:
Originally posted by hikaricor:
Title is misleading and this is old news.
I have not been aware of this nor did I "hear" of this so called "old news" so either back your statement up with dates and ocurrences or pipe down.
Check neowin and the title is misleading as he says. You can do your own homework.

1030.1.2011 18:10

the title is fine. as censorship is the act of suppressing, not elimination. Google is Suppressing the ability to make easy searching possible.

Google should suppress itself, as it is the number one torrent finder.

1130.1.2011 18:57

Originally posted by jeff_2:
Thats a fancy way of saying Google gave in. I for one will be changing search engine lol
They only are filtering bit torrent-related phrases via autocomplete hitting "Enter" after typing in Bittorrent will show you unfiltered results.

1230.1.2011 19:57

I hate Google. I hate corporations, and I don't give a crap how unsophisticated that sounds.

1330.1.2011 20:48

Originally posted by Aarbyy:
I hate Google. I hate corporations, and I don't give a crap how unsophisticated that sounds.
lol. Someone's a communist.

1431.1.2011 01:37

Originally posted by Rebel11:
Originally posted by Aarbyy:
I hate Google. I hate corporations, and I don't give a crap how unsophisticated that sounds.
lol. Someone's a communist.
Is that okay? I know we have a democracy here in NA, but can I be a communist if I choose to be?

1531.1.2011 03:13

NOw would be a good time for one of googles rivals to start a search engine aimed at finding torrent files.

1631.1.2011 03:17

Originally posted by Aarbyy:

Is that okay? I know we have a democracy here in NA, but can I be a communist if I choose to be?
It's perfectly fine. I don't care if you are a communist or not. Your views are your own. I don't believe in communism (obviously) but I didn't mean my comment to cause insult. Just pointing out the obvious. :3

Originally posted by xboxdvl2:
NOw would be a good time for one of googles rivals to start a search engine aimed at finding torrent files.
lol. It'd never happen. Google's only 2 big competitors are Yahoo and Microsoft. We both know theres no way in hell they'll start up a search engine for torrents.

1731.1.2011 09:37

How coincidental and Orwellian, that Afterdawn features on the same day:
Google is restricting torrent searches...
and China is blocking "Egypt" searches.

One is done for appeasement.
One is done for malice.

1831.1.2011 10:37

It's at least a step in the right direction. All torrent sites should be blocked from the search features. You don't see the addresses and phone numbers of street vendors who sell stolen merchandise in the yellow pages do you?

1931.1.2011 11:32

Originally posted by ngs24:
It's at least a step in the right direction. All torrent sites should be blocked from the search features. You don't see the addresses and phone numbers of street vendors who sell stolen merchandise in the yellow pages do you?
pretty sure silver sun second hand shop is in yellow pages.I know for a fact cash converters is.both them shops are not exactly street vendors but then again torrent sites are organised businesses.pretty sure if you know someones name that is a theif you can search whitepages or possible even track them down through google or facebook.does ebay require proof of ownership of a product which your selling???

stealing by definition is taking physical properly without permission.as torrent files arn't actually physical properly its techically not stealing.as the data has been copied/cloned but not physically removed its not stealing.anyway post in safety valve if you would like a debate about whats stealing and what isn't

2031.1.2011 20:00

old news just does not auto complete, oh the agony i will have to click the search button. Works fine here.

2131.1.2011 23:59

Originally posted by ngs24:
It's at least a step in the right direction. All torrent sites should be blocked from the search features. You don't see the addresses and phone numbers of street vendors who sell stolen merchandise in the yellow pages do you?
Ugh. Just, ugh.
This is a step in the wrong direction. Nothing good will come of placing restrictions on the internet. I'm not defending torrents or anything like that. But I'm saying they are going about this the wrong way.

These torrent sites do not hold any of the illegal information. So they are not commenting any illegal act. Yet, the people who do decide do download these torrents, are. (disclaimer: not all torrents contain stolen/illegal content)
So we should be punishing these sites, it's like punishing MSN because their users are sending songs to one another.It's utterly absurd.

I subscribe to the school of thought that states that the criminal should be caught in the act (or after the fact) with said data (song, program, movie, etc).

Originally posted by xboxdvl2:

stealing by definition is taking physical properly without permission.as torrent files arn't actually physical properly its techically not stealing.as the data has been copied/cloned but not physically removed its not stealing.
The illegal act being commented isn't Stealing. It's copyright infringement. Which, as you know, is an entirely different ballgame.
And just as a side note: Stealing = Larceny: "wrongful acquisition of the personal property of another person". Physical presence has nothing to do with it.

221.2.2011 17:36

Certainly such steps aren't clear from the biggest searcher. But nevertheless to be upset I think it is not necessary to eat already weight of searchers of torrent, for example link. Come and search that you want.

231.2.2011 20:56

I like searching torrents in Google, for example "name" torrent, or "name" piratebay, since piratebay's search doesn't work, but their torrents are still active. Not a huge problem, I'll just switch to another search engine. It's already known that Google collects data on what you search, so bye bye Google. I'll probably only use google now for Android and maps.

241.2.2011 23:12

Originally posted by mike.m:
I like searching torrents in Google, for example "name" torrent, or "name" piratebay, since piratebay's search doesn't work, but their torrents are still active. Not a huge problem, I'll just switch to another search engine. It's already known that Google collects data on what you search, so bye bye Google. I'll probably only use Google now for Android and maps.
Piratebay works fine for me, and as long as your not logged in to Google let them collect whatever they want. Anyway assume anything you do online is collected by some agency or another.

253.2.2011 05:46

Majority of people have the torrent sites book marked, so no damage

263.2.2011 17:38

Originally posted by ngs24:
It's at least a step in the right direction. All torrent sites should be blocked from the search features. You don't see the addresses and phone numbers of street vendors who sell stolen merchandise in the yellow pages do you?
You also don't find the address or phone number for Google!

273.2.2011 17:48

Originally posted by ngs24:
It's at least a step in the right direction. All torrent sites should be blocked from the search features. You don't see the addresses and phone numbers of street vendors who sell stolen merchandise in the yellow pages do you?
Torrent sites do not have any kind of infringing files on them, and sharing a movie is not stealing. There is no theft of materials or copyright infringement going on when you torrent a file. Its not like one downloads a movie and sells it.
When a person takes something that belongs to somebody else without permission, that is stealing. When someone torrents a movie that someone else has put up to share, this is not stealing. Its just a digital file.

283.2.2011 18:42

Originally posted by jeff_2:
Thats a fancy way of saying Google gave in. I for one will be changing search engine lol
+1

293.2.2011 18:54

absolutely no need to care about this folks.

you can still search freely just minus googles little perks.

porn searchs have never been in autocomplete as far as i can tell. even searching names, if the name is associated with porn it doesnt auto complete.

google made a good move. you will still get your search results. rapidshare and the like have concerns which are justified. this could lead to potential search filtering in the future. however, i would think that violates civil rights to some degree.

303.2.2011 20:08

Originally posted by internetdude:
Originally posted by ngs24:
It's at least a step in the right direction. All torrent sites should be blocked from the search features. You don't see the addresses and phone numbers of street vendors who sell stolen merchandise in the yellow pages do you?
Torrent sites do not have any kind of infringing files on them, and sharing a movie is not stealing. There is no theft of materials or copyright infringement going on when you torrent a file. Its not like one downloads a movie and sells it.
When a person takes something that belongs to somebody else without permission, that is stealing. When someone torrents a movie that someone else has put up to share, this is not stealing. Its just a digital file.
Whatever helps you sleep better at night..lol..

314.2.2011 09:47

Originally posted by scorpNZ:
Originally posted by internetdude:
Originally posted by ngs24:
It's at least a step in the right direction. All torrent sites should be blocked from the search features. You don't see the addresses and phone numbers of street vendors who sell stolen merchandise in the yellow pages do you?
Torrent sites do not have any kind of infringing files on them, and sharing a movie is not stealing. There is no theft of materials or copyright infringement going on when you torrent a file. Its not like one downloads a movie and sells it.
When a person takes something that belongs to somebody else without permission, that is stealing. When someone torrents a movie that someone else has put up to share, this is not stealing. Its just a digital file.
Whatever helps you sleep better at night..lol..
I completely Agree.
Torrenting is not stealing at all, it's sharing, not necesarily when someone is sharing through torrent means that he downloaded a DVD Screener or so, it could be his own file that he would like others to share.

324.2.2011 14:09

As Dr Evil would say "yeah right"

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 04 Feb 2011 @ 2:11

3323.6.2011 03:18
euheide
Unverified new user

"Of course, regular search results will not be censored, just autocomplete and instant results."

It always starts with small things. But they've opened a precedent. They've opened the way for new measures.

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