File-sharing site The Pirate Bay is once again in the crosshairs of copyright owners. Google has removed the site’s home page from its search results in response to a complaint it received under the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
A search for “The Pirate Bay” Friday turned up a message at the bottom of the first search-results page that said: “In response to a complaint we received under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we have removed 7 result(s) from this page. If you wish, you may read the DMCA complaint that caused the removal(s) at ChillingEffects.org.”
The complaint was filed by Destined Enterprises, which in the past has helped the adult-entertainment industry battle online piracy, according to other filings at ChillingEffects.org.
The removal was noted by former Pirate Bay spokesman Peter Sunde who wrote in a Twitter message, “Ok, someone from Google can please reply: why is ‘thepiratebay.org’ (the frontpage) removed from your index?”
Google doesn’t have any further comment on the removal other than what’s available at ChillingEffects.org, according to a spokesman.
However, Google hasn’t completely removed the file-sharing site from its search results. It still returns a link to a page that lists a number of content types, including movies, TV shows and music. There is also a link to the Pirate Bay blog.
The battle between The Pirate Bay and copyright owners is currently being fought in court in a number of countries, including Sweden, Denmark, Italy, and Norway.
The operators of The Pirate Bay are scheduled to be back in court on Nov. 13 for a hearing in the Svea Court of Appeals in Sweden. In April they were found guilty of of being accessories to crimes against copyright law.