Adding to its list of predators, Grooveshark is now on Google’s blacklist for anti-piracy searching filters. The search engine has eliminated the Autocomplete option for the music sharing site as it similarly has done for curse words and certain parts of the human anatomy.
TorrentFreak first discovered the elimination. As they explain, Google’s piracy blacklist was introduced to curb copyright infringement and prevents popular keywords from appearing in Google’s Instant and Autocomplete services. Now it appears that Grooveshark’s name has been added to said list. Neither Google or Grooveshark have responded for comment on their findings. However, pior to this discovery, Google had given comment on their general anti-piracy procedures. “When evaluating terms for inclusion, we examine several factors, including correlation between the term and results that have been subject to valid DMCA takedown notices,” a Google spokesperson said.
It seems that Grooveshark was added to Google’s naughty list in April. The speculation is that music labels have been making requests to Google to target these sites. That would make sense considering that Grooveshark has not made many friends in the business lately, with various labels, bands and publishing companies issuing lawsuits against Grooveshark and its parent company Escape Media. Grooveshark has been accused those cases for never paying royalties for music the site uploaded by its artists. So needless to say, this new block from Google isn’t good news for Grooveshark.
