Google pooh-poohs Murdoch's piracy accusation

Tues Jan 16: Google has responded to News Corp chairman (and Twitter debutante) Rupert Murdoch's accusation that the search engine facilitates piracy (see Mr Murdoch's tweets below).

In a statement to media, the company said "This is just nonsense. Last year we took down 5 million infringing Web pages from our search results and invested more than $60 million in the fight against bad ads ...We fight pirates and counterfeiters every day ... The best way to stop [pirates] is through targeted legislation that would require ad networks and payment processors--like ours--to cut off sites dedicated to piracy or counterfeiting."

Live on Twitter: Murdoch's SOPA meltdown

Mon Jan 15: Some of the holiday season's keenest entertainment was provided by Rupert Murdoch.

The News Corp boss joined Twitter (with a verified account, meaning Twitter has authenticated that Mr Murdoch - likely through a member of his staff - is indeed the person behind the tweets).

While most CEO tweets are anodyne, Mr Murdoch - seemingly unbowed after the News of the World phone tapping controversy - has been pulling no punches on issues like the Republican presidential primary, and how the Fed sets rates.

Among his topics has been the controversial US legislation SOPA (the Stop Online Piracy Act) currently before Congress, and opposed by President Obama.

SOPA has pitted the entertainment (pro) and technology industries (anti) against each other. Mr Murdoch's tweets over the weekend left no doubt on which side he stood:

Several pundits noted the News Corp boss had just been praising the search giant in two tweets about the giant Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that has just wrapped up in Las Vegas:

After pundits pointed out the contradiction, Mr Murdoch posted a conciliatory tweet:

But almost immediately he was back on the front foot, posting:

This is barely Mr Murdoch's first attack on Twitter.

He has formerly sparred with the search giant over the way it disseminates news stories (Google argues it drives traffic to news sites. On the other hand, News Corp's Wall Street Journal paywall has been undermined by readers' ability to access a story free via a Google search link - though one wonders if there's some inventory-pumping going on; surely it would not be that technically difficult for the WSJ technical gnomes to close this loophole).

But when it's all happening in real-time on Twitter, it's a whole lot more entertaining.

Follow the action here.