Doug Ross @ Journal

How the DMCA Affects Google Search Results

I did a Google search for "excel web" to find which companies were selling products and/or advertising in the spreadsheet collaboration space.

After the least search result, I noticed the following announcement from Google:

In response to a complaint we received under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we have removed 1 result(s) from this page. If you wish, you may read the DMCA complaint for these removed results.

The link Google directs us to is broken, but contains the term KaZaA Media Desktop. Because KaZaA is a 'prohibited product', in that it can be used for illicit file sharing, the powers-that-be have blacklisted it. The RIAA strikes again.

Fortunately, there are other powers aligned on the side of good. Powers like Billionaire Mark Cuban, who wrote in a recent blog entry:

It doesn't matter that the RIAA has been wrong about innovations and the perceived threat to their industry every single time... It just matters that they can spend more (than) everyone else on lawyers.

The day can't come quick enough when the geniuses at the RIAA are put out to pasture with their intellectual ancestors: the Edsel, Pets.com, and New Coke.