MPAA RESUMES BATTLE WITH GOOGLE

The motion picture industry fired a shot over the bow of movie pirates on Wednesday — and it landed on Google. A report by Compete Inc. that was commissioned by the Motion Picture Association found that the search engine accounted for 82 percent of referrals to pirate websites. In releasing details of the study, MPAA chief Christopher Dodd said, “Search engines bear responsibility for introducing people to infringing content — even people who aren’t actively looking for it.” Dodd appeared to be referring to a finding in the report that some people who are simply looking for information about a new movie often discover that it is available on a file-sharing website. Release of the report appeared to reactivate the battle between the MPAA and Google that had reverted to trench warfare since the defeat of the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act last year.