Google Legal Challenge To Filesharing Claims

Recent claims by the filesharing industry that the search engine is facilitating copyright infringement and piracy by linking to sites such as Rapidshare (among others) are being denied by Google. It is not, it contends, facilitating the illegal distribution of copyrighted songs.

Google’s attempt is a brave attempt by the giant to gain the advantage over content industries; a win here will pave the way for two things:

1.To be left alone by those who are branding it as a ‘pirate’ (et al); and
2.To start moving into related areas without worrying about the immediate legal consequences.

The move by Google started when California-based Blues label Blue Destiny mounted a challenge again Google, Microsoft and Rapidshare last year. The Google and Microsoft search engines were, it claimed, helping to prop up the business of Rapidshare. Rapidshare was in existence solely to run a “distribution center for unlawful copies of copyrighted works”. Strong (and fairly inaccurate) words.

For whatever reason, Blue Destiny withdrew the lawsuit in March. One has to guess that the protracted fight against Google’s battle hardened lawyers just got too expensive for them. Google wants to settle the issue once and for all, so is now looking for a declaratory judgment that it is not in the wrong here.

Interesting times.

Google Legal Challenge To Filesharing Claims

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