[ajross]

My intuition agrees too, this is just a goof. But it's important to note that this isn't merely hypocrisy. By offering useful search results that Google doesn't, Microsoft makes Bing a more attractive search engine. This process certainly could be abused if MS wanted -- XBox and Windows cracks are clearly desired content.

[grhino]

Or Bing doesn't even fall on Microsoft Entertainment's radar. I would expect the fiefdoms to defend their own turf.

[kenrikm]

It seems (in this case) that Microsoft makes the best search engine to steal from.. Microsoft. Bravo guys! Well done keep up the good work in Redmond.

[ajross]

"Steal?" You drank the koolaid. The fact that they haven't rectified this in their own search engine should be pretty good evidence that copying and piracy are not, in fact, "theft" and that they don't represent lost sales.

[recoiledsnake]

>The fact that they haven't rectified this in their own search engine should be pretty good evidence that copying and piracy are not, in fact, "theft" and that they don't represent lost sales

What? Does not compute.

[ajross]

If MS truly felt they were losing money, they'd shut down the links. Bing links are, for obvious reasons, much easier to shut down than Google links. But they didn't. You can do the rest of the computation.

[clarky07]

Never attribute to malice that which can easily be explained by incompetence.

[rbanffy]

It's much easier to do when the incompetence is not this selective.

[duaneb]

More likely the legal team just forgot that Bing exists.

[cpeterso]

If MS removed those links from Bing, then people might complain that MS is selectively altering search results for its own benefit. (I'm only half-joking.)

[recoiledsnake]

So why are they then contracting out the takedown notices to a third party which must be charging them a whole bunch for sending notices for hundreds of thousands of links? Just to make Bing better and Google worse for 0.01% of popular illegal downloads? Again, does not compute.