Media mogul Rupert Murdoch rips into Google over piracy
updated 05:35 am EST, Mon January 16, 2012
Rupert Murdoch attacks Google, Obama over SOPA
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has ripped into Google over what he alleges is its complicity in propagating pirated content in its search results. Murdoch, CEO of News Corporation, and a strong backer of SOPA, also accused President Obama of permitting piracy go on unabated after reconsidering his position on certain provisions in the legislation. Since signing up to the Twitterverse in the past few weeks, Murdoch has let his position on SOPA be known to the world.
Murdoch argued that searching for illegal copies of Mission Impossible was ridiculously easy. He tweeted that he had “Just been to google to search for mission impossible. Wow, several sites offering free links. I rest my case.” He added that “Google streams movies free, sells advts around them. No wonder pouring millions into lobbying.” Whether the argument holds water is debatable as Google’s function is to deliver search results, generally speaking, free from censorship.
The media tycoon has also used Twitter as a platform to attack the Obama administration for backtracking
on its position SOPA, suggesting that the president had “thrown in his lot with Silicon Valley paymasters who threaten all software creators with piracy, plain thievery.” A number of key backers of the legislation have balked at criticisms that it could impinge on First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and that it could open websites to malicious attacks if powers to shut down domains and sites was to be granted.
As the owner of valuable multimedia content, Murdoch’s News Corp potentially stands to lose the upper hand in its ongoing battle against online piracy if the PIPA and SOPA legislation fails to pass. [via Forbes]
