[mulligan]

Google on hot seat for link to film pirating
UPDATED: 09:23, February 14, 2007

Questions about the ethical conduct of Internet search leader Google are again being raised as it faces mounting criticism from major media companies for reportedly working closely to help two websites accused of film pirating.

The Wall Street Journal reported Brandon Drury and Luke Sample, who are accused of promoting film piracy in a suit brought by major film studios, received significant support from Google between 2003 and 2005.

The two men had websites -- EasyDownloadCenter.com and TheDownloadPlace.com -- which the paper said enabled users to search for movies on the Internet and then download them onto their hard drives.

Google has been trying to reach agreement with the major television and movie studios for the proper use of copyrighted material on its sites, especially its YouTube video site that Google recently purchased for 1.65 billion U.S. dollars. So Google has been trying to placate the studios even though it is not a defendant in the pirating case involving Drury and Sample.

Among the keywords Google reportedly sold to two websites accused of promoting film piracy are "bootleg movie download" and "download Harry Potter movie."

The Journal reports that Google, attracted by the heavy traffic the sites were generating, assigned account representatives who suggested keywords they could bid on, including "bootleg movie download," "pirated," and "download harry potter movie."

Google also offered Drury and Sample credit so they didn't have to use their credit cards to pay Google's fees, according to the report, although it isn't clear if the offer was accepted. And Google was paid 809,000 dollars for ads placed by the two sites over the three-year period, according to the report.

The Journal reports that on Friday, Google had an afternoon conference call with studio representatives, during which lawyers for Google said the company would remove certain ads the companies objected to, create a list of approved advertisers and refrain from selling keywords used by rogue sites to lure users to pirated material.

In addition, the Google lawyers said the company would introduce internal guidelines on monitoring keywords and train its ad sales force about how to avoid selling such ads.

Among the media companies that had complained about Google's support for pirates, according to the Journal, were News Corp., Viacom, Sony, Time Warner, Walt Disney and NBC Universal, a unit of General Electric. CNNMoney.com is owned by Time Warner.

Source:Xinhua/Agencies