A federal judge on Monday put on at least temporary hold Mississippi Attorney General James Hood’s effort to investigate Google for not doing enough to remove illegal content, including pirated content appearing in Web searches. Leaked Sony Pictures documents suggest the effort was backed by MPAA.
U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate granted Google’s request for a preliminary injunction that will prevent Hood from executing a subpoena intended to determine if the company is facilitating illegal activity.
In his four-page ruling, Hood said he was acting because Google’s challenge of the subpoena raised a valid federal question and because a failure to delay the subpoena could lead to Google suffering a substantial immediate injury by turning over records sought in the subpoena.