Newsletter
The recent news about Sony being hacked and a number of its ‘personal effects’ being leaked online has made headlines around the world. Most of the stories seem to revolve around the (maybe) upcoming release of their new movie “The Interview’. That said, one interesting revelation that has emerged from the leaked Sony documents was that a collaboration of studios and the Major Motion Picture Association (MPAA) were preparing for their war on “Project Goliath” and online piracy. Although, it has not been officially confirmed it is largely believed that ‘Goliath’ is in fact Google. As such the insinuation is that Google is one of the biggest facilitators of online piracy and that by curbing the Search company’s search results would help remove the sites which offer what is considered pirated content.
Well, Google seems to have not taken too kindly to the recently released documents and today posted an official response in the form of a blog post on their Public Policy Blog. The posting talks about how “deeply concerned” Google is with the recent reports that the MPAA led a “secret, coordinated campaign” to bring back from the dead the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Following on from this, the Google post goes on to quote some of the recently leaked documents which highlight that the MPAA actively set aside a $500,000 a year budget to fund Project Goliath along with later looking to raise a further 1.2 million to help with the legal battle. Google also highlighted that these funds were then used to actively go after Google and even using the funds to back a trumped up movement dubbed ‘ The Digital Citizens Alliance’.
After referencing the background information and how concerned they are about the way in which the MPAA have conducted themselves, Google made it clear in their blog that they do take piracy seriously and have introduced measures in dealing with pirated content. In an interesting sign off to the blog, Google referenced the 1st amendment and the right to free expression while directly asking why the MPAA who claim to be advocates of the 1st amendment are acting in this manner. You can read Google’s response blog post in full by clicking here. So what do you think of the recent leaked Sony documents? Do you think it is ironic that stolen documents were what brought about the revelation of the MPAA’s involvement in the fight against what they view to be ‘stolen’ content? Let us know your thoughts.