Kim Dotcom’s new Mega file service is coming under some fire as two major Hollywood Studios have gone to none other than Google to ask that the search engine giant block the Mega site from its search results.  Both NBC Universal and Warner Bros. have submitted requests to censor results that include Mega because they include movies that are pirated.  In return, Kim Dotcom has fired back, stating that this request is a violation of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, as the request would restrict access to legitimate files.

We’re all quite familiar with the DMCA takedown notices that appear in Google from time to time, but this request would be much different.  Dotcom has maneuvered his position in a way that’s hard to logically take down.  The request aims to require Google to block the Mega homepage from its search results.  There are no links to any files on that homepage and it means as Dotcom stated that access to legitimate files that users are looking for could be blocked. 

Mega is the re-emergent successor of Megaupload, an operations which was seized in January of 2012 as a result of piracy investigations.  Dotcom and three other Megaupload executives were arrested on the day of Dotcom’s birthday celebration and the men were indicted on a variety of counts.  Some $17 million of assets was also seized.  Dotcom re-emerged in January of this year with this new service, based outside of the U.S., complete with a barrage of features designed to ensure user privacy and sustained operations.  Access to legitimate files is a sensitive issue because so many users lost their personal non-pirated files when the servers and files were confiscated and never returned.

One thing is for sure, DMCA takedown notices are on the rise – adding credence to the notion that internet piracy has not slowed down despite the best efforts of different bodies.  Google has an ever-increasing task in verifying the validity of a number of these complaints.  Currently the system that reports these violations is reportedly automated and it is increasingly difficult for Google to ascertain which of the complaints are legitimate from the non-legitimate complaints.  Moreover, the rise of piracy appears to be on the uptick and this attempt to block an entire site that operates under the auspice of legitimate file storage will prove to be a fascinating dead-end.  Google will probably not tread on this very much and the studios will be forced to play other tactics to abate piracy for the time being.