The Pirate Google

The question raised as Judge Ilovemesomecopyrights threw The Pirate Bay team into prison (or, at least, a long, drawn-out, process of appeals) was why the IFPI was targeting one search engine while not having a pop at Google.

There are two answers: first, Google could theoretically buy the four major labels without breaking much of a sweat and where would the IFPI be then? But, secondly, and more seriously, Google could find it much easier to argue - under US law - that it's just offering a search, and if people use it to search for things they shouldn't, well, that might be regrettable but is hardly their fault.

As if to test this hypothesis comes The PIrate Google:

The intention of this site is to demonstrate the double standard that was exemplified in the recent Pirate Bay Trial. Sites such as Google offer much the same functionality as The Pirate Bay and other Bit Torrent sites but are not targeted by media conglomerates such as the IFPI as they have the political and legal clout to defend themselves unlike these small independent sites.

What the organisers of this site seem to have missed is that, effectively, they're doing what The Pirate Bay did and what Google doesn't - building a search that expressly looks for torrents. So, rather than suggesting the IFPI goes after Google rather than the little guy, aren't they just making themselves targets?

[via Everything Is Miscellaneous]