Google Seeks Restraining Order Against Mississippi Attorney General

Google on Friday asked a federal judge to prohibit Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood from following through on a threat to sue the company for enabling Web users to access “illegal” content.

Google also is asking for an injunction prohibiting Hood from enforcing a subpoena demanding information relating to outside companies -- including operators of sites that Google indexes in its search engine -- that allegedly play a role in copyright infringement.

“If a state Attorney General can punish, irrespective of well-established federal law, any search engine or video-sharing platform whenever he finds third-party content he deems objectionable, search engines and video-sharing platforms cannot operate in their current form,” Google says in a request for a temporary restraining order filed Friday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi. “They would instead have to pre-screen the trillions of websites and millions of videos on the Internet blocking anything they had not yet reviewed from being publicly accessible so as to avoid the ire of even a single state or local regulator.”

Google's complaint incorporates some of the revelations that came to light as a result of the Sony hack, including “Project Goliath” -- the code name for a Hollywood campaign to persuade state law enforcement authorities to target Google for allegedly enabling piracy. Google refers in its complaint to a letter signed by Hood, but reportedly authored by a lawyer for the motion picture industry, that accuses the company of profiting from illegal activity.

“The Attorney General has been particularly focused on websites containing infringing content protected by copyright,” Google says, adding that Hood has demanded that the company promote sites Hollywood-endorsed sites and also “display an icon alongside such favored sites in its results.”

Next story loading loading..

Discover Our Publications