Google Says Mississippi Probe Is Censorship

The lawsuit was filed Friday in federal court in Jackson, after Google, citing hacked Sony Corp. e-mails, expressed concerns about reports that the Motion Picture Association of America pushed states to pressure the Mountain View company. In an item posted on its public policy blog Thursday and updated Friday, Google said the association did “legal legwork” for Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood’s investigation by drafting a letter “making numerous accusations about the company” that he later sent. The company asked the court to block Hood’s subpoena, which seeks information about how it restricts — or doesn’t restrict — material created by third parties and available through Google’s services and also asks for information about the importation of prescription drugs. Google claimed Hood’s threats of civil and criminal enforcement violate the federal Communications Decency Act, which it said grants Internet companies “broad immunity” from prosecution for making third-party content available. “The effect of the attorney general’s inquiry is to chill the operation of Google’s search engine” and other services such as YouTube, “threatening to silence vast amounts of protected speech,” according to the complaint. Steven Fabrizio, the trade group’s global general counsel, wrote about a plan by him and others in the film industry to persuade several attorneys general to pursue regulatory actions against Google, according to e-mails sent to employees at Sony, Warner Bros., Walt Disney Co., 21st Century Fox Inc., Comcast Corp.’s NBC Universal and Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Pictures. The project, discussed amid the concerns about the availability of pirated content, came after “a couple of the studio heads called for a 'get tough’ strategy,” Fabrizio said in a March e-mail. “Google’s blog post today is a transparent attempt to deflect focus from its own conduct and to shift attention from legitimate and important ongoing investigations by state attorneys general into the role of Google Search in enabling and facilitating illegal conduct — including illicit drug purchases, human trafficking and fraudulent documents as well as theft of intellectual property,” Kate Bedingfield, a spokeswoman for the movie trade group, said in a statement Thursday.