Comment What about this one? (Score 2, Interesting) 216
In both Google Blog posts, it is stated that they comply with takedown requests for such "obviously illegal" material as child pornography.
It would appear, however, that some of the material they treat as such is not in fact obviously illegal, is not child pornography, and does not fall within the scope of mandatory removal statutes of US federal law (viz. 18 U.S.C. 2258B(c)(1)).
Here is a report of one case where Google has acted on a child porn complaint while the material at hand was in fact Japanese pornographic comic books (i.e. drawings!):
This type of material may be unsavory to some, but it can be found on the official sites of many major Japanese publishers as well, and is widely available in Japanese book shops. The legality of the material in the US is not completely clear, but only because of obscenity laws (as opposed to child porn laws): i.e. it is on an equal legal footing with BDSM porn, scat, rape play porn and others (as in, possibly illegal in the Bible Belt and first amendment-protected speech elsewhere due to different community standards).
It appears that Google has ignored subsequent requests by the targeted site to reconsider the takedown:
Sure, they have a right to take down whatever they want, but it's a bit disingenuous to pose as virtuous defenders of free speech afterwards.
