Microsoft forcing Google to censor news
 

Microsoft has been going censorship crazy by asking Google to take down links to news content.

Vole has been dashing off censorship request to Google to take down BBC, CNN, Huffington Post, TechCrunch and Wikipedia stories.

According to Torrent Freak the number of DMCA takedown requests sent out by copyright holders has increased dramatically and it is starting to look like some are abusing the process.

It might not be part of an evil plot, Many rightsholders use automated systems to inform Google and other sites of infringements but they do not always work.

For example Microsoft insisted that there were 65 pages that were assisting the unauthorised distribution of Windows 8 Beta.

But nearly half of the URLs that Google was asked to remove from its search results have nothing to do with Windows 8.

Instead sites such as AMC Theatres, BBC, Buzzfeed, CNN, HuffPo, TechCrunch, RealClearPolitics, Rotten Tomatoes, ScienceDirect, Washington Post, Wikipedia and even the US Government were mentioned.

It seems that the pages were targetted because they had a reference to the number 45.

Fortunately for the BBC, Google appears to have white-listed a few domains, as the BBC and Wikipedia but less prominent sites are not so lucky. AMC Theatres and RealClearPolitics pages are still unavailable through Google search.

It would appear that Vole, and other Big Content types are automatically censoring large parts of the Internet and there is absolutely no one to hold them responsible.

Of course if some ambulance chasing lawyer were smart minded they could make a real killing with a mega-class action against Big Content.

http://news.techeye.net/internet/mic...to-censor-news