Google takes legal action against Mississippi State Attorney General

http://www.theverge.com/2014/12/19/7422119/goliath-strikes-back-google-takes-legal-action-against-the-mpaa-and

by foolrush • 12 years ago

113 32 12 years ago

theverge.com

gknoy• 12 years ago

More details (linked from the article):

Google's "Stop Zombie SOPA" page https://takeaction.withgoogle.com/page/s/stop-zombie-sopa

Google's blog on the matter, explaining backstory: http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-mpaas-att...

ganeumann• 12 years ago

Would love to know what the people of Mississippi think about their AG spending tax dollars on something that will not benefit them in any way.

Amezarak2• 12 years ago

Well, I'm from Mississippi and I'm ambivalent about it because for the most part, Jim Hood has been an excellent AG and the only state-level politician (besides Mike Chaney) worth a damn and has consistently pursued cases and policies that definitely helped us.

Obviously this is not at all clear-cut - I do have a problem with people selling unregulated prescription drugs online and that's part of the reason he's doing this (it's not only about movie piracy), but I'm doubtful that going after Google is the best way to go about it.

toomuchtodo3• 12 years ago

Obviously this is not at all clear-cut - I do have a problem with people selling unregulated prescription drugs online

Why?

Disclaimer: I'm biased. My doctor would not prescribe me an extremely safe anti-parasitic that is in no way DEA controlled, and I had to do the research myself and had buy it from an "online pharmacy" to have my issue resolved (which was cheaper, might I add, than what my local pharmacy was charging).

mindcrime• 12 years ago

I do have a problem with people selling unregulated prescription drugs online

I don't get this mindset. If you don't like unregulated prescription drugs, don't buy them. OTOH, if I'm willing to gamble with my health by taking drugs I buy online...well, its my body, I can put whatever I want into it.

Now, somebody bring up antibiotic resistant bacteria as the BigGov argument. Sorry, but that doesn't hold water with me. I don't find it moral to prevent somebody from doing something today, because $HYPOTHETICAL_BAD_THING might happen tomorrow.

No1• 12 years ago

unregulated prescription drugs

You realize if the drug requires a prescription, then it's regulated?

joezydeco• 12 years ago

It might not have been the Mississippi tax dollars being spent here:

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20141212/12142629419/leake...

It's looking like the MPAA was funneling money to the state AGs to assist in their fight against Google. This is what Google wants uncovered during the lawsuit.

hga4• 12 years ago

Here's the game AG Hood is playing, the old fashioned shakedown, except apparently AG offices don't usually front the money:

In no place has the contingency-fee practice flourished more than in Mississippi, where lawyers hired by Attorney General Jim Hood, a Democrat, have collected $57.5 million in fees during the last two years — three times as much as Mr. Hood has spent on running his state office during the same period.

Mr. Hood has taken in $395,000 in campaign contributions from trial law firms over the last decade, more than any other attorney general.

It then goes into specifics.

From "Lawyers Create Big Paydays by Coaxing Attorneys General to Sue" http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/19/us/politics/lawyers-create...

Zigurd2• 12 years ago

"We regret having to take this matter to court," Google said in a statement, "and we are doing so only after years of efforts...

If by regret they mean "peed ourselves laughing" then yeah.

rayiner2• 12 years ago

I'd never be able to write that and mean it.

hga4• 12 years ago

I know Zigurd and I'm sure he meant it.

In this case I think he's wrong, but he's honest, and has a certain flair of which this is a rather earthy example. He's of Latvian descent, I think it's allowed ^_^.

BerislavLopac2• 12 years ago

And this, my friends, is the primary reason why Google bought YouTube.

ronilan• 12 years ago

That was most definitely "a" reason but also most likely not "the" reason.

Also, the primary reason of a journey may be a route to India, but the result may be a whole other country.

BerislavLopac2• 12 years ago

I'm pretty sure that was the primary reason, especially for the sum they paid, which was pretty unheard of at the time for such a young company. YouTube's market share was an added bonus, but it was definitely not something Google couldn't beat given some time and the money they had.

But the fact that YouTube was the obvious target for all the litigations that were certain to come -- and outcome of which would also affect Google Videos and all other video streaming companies -- was a pretty big incentive for Google to get involved and make sure that they have a say in the control over the legal game.

biomimic• 12 years ago

One of the reasons why the MPAA/Sony emails leaked.

geekam• 12 years ago

I am not sure if I get the reference or the story. Are you saying that Google leaked those emails somehow?

r109• 12 years ago

Why doesn't MPAA take the millions of dollars they poor into anti-piracy and give us all a Netflix of movies? Oh wait, AMC and Regal Cinema wouldn't like that.

Google takes legal action against Mississippi State Attorney General

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