A particular subreddit on the popular forum-based website dedicated to online streaming sources of films was the target of the Warner Brothers legal action.
The studio sent a letter to the search engine giant asking for the company to remove results for the BestOfStreamingVideo subreddit from Google searches. However Google declined to heed the request.
According to the takedown notice, Warner Brothers filed 24 complaints of copyright violation with Google with the offending subreddit named as an allegedly infringing URL on one of the claims because it linked to a pirated copy of the film Interstellar.
The subreddit has 46,000 subscribers but moderators didn’t seem too concerned about the complaint.
Speculation by piracy website Torrent Freak suggested the reason Google knocked back the request to remove the subreddit from searches was because it was too broad. Another reason posited by the website was because Google may think the responsibility for such action lies with reddit.
It is unclear if a similar takedown notice was issued to the social media site but it would likely be met with similar resistance.
“The sub was made as a way for our users to share streaming video, and as Reddit is a platform for free speech it is out of our control as to what our users post,” one reddit moderator said.
This article was originally published on news.com.au
