A new appeals court ruling has reopened the fight between Google and Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood. Filed this morning by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, the core of the ruling is procedural, vacating an earlier injunction against a subpoena filed by Hood against Google. The court found that the injunction was not necessary because the issue could have been more appropriately adjudicated in a district court.

The court also made it clear that the injunction could be reinstated if the attorney general decides to seek enforcement on the initial order order. Some legal observers are already describing it as a positive outcome for Goo …

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Google just chalked up an early win against Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood, an MPAA-friendly prosecutor who was implicated in a number of Goliath documents. A federal court in Jackson, Mississippi, has granted a preliminary injunction against Hood's efforts to fight content piracy on Google's network, restricting any subpoena or further investigative action from Hood while the case is still in progress. It's still early in the case, but the injunction represents a significant win for Google and a real setback for both Hood and his supporters at the MPAA.

"We're pleased with the court's ruling."

In 2013, Hood sent Google a massive, 79- …

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The Motion Picture Association of America has responded to Google's condemnation of Project Goliath, a secret and ambitious anti-piracy program revealed in leaked Sony documents. Yesterday, the search company said it was "deeply concerned" by the MPAA's efforts to push new content-blocking methods and help attorneys general build legal cases against Google, accusing the organization of attempting to "secretly censor the internet." But a spokesperson for the MPAA says these claims are disingenuous.

"Google's effort to position itself as a defender of free speech is shameful."

"Google's effort to position itself as a defender of free speech is …

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After hacked documents revealed that Sony and other media companies were attempting to pass harsh anti-piracy measures, Google has condemned its actions. "We are deeply concerned about recent reports that the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) led a secret, coordinated campaign to revive the failed SOPA legislation through other means," the company said in a blog post today. It went on to point out details that The Verge and other sites found while combing through the terabytes of information leaked by the hacker group Guardians of Peace.

Among other things, Sony and other members of the MPAA joined a campaign known as "Project Go …

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At the end of last week, we dug up news of Project Goliath, a secret Hollywood project to investigate and discredit Google on issues of copyright and web freedom. But while the documents showed how bad things had gotten between Google and Hollywood, they also showed how eagerly many state attorneys general took up the MPAA's anti-Google crusade - particularly Mississippi's Jim Hood. And less than a week after the documents were made public, that eagerness is starting to have real consequences.

Hood has been at the center of many of the recent legal actions against Google in the US, investigating the company for involvement in both pharmaceu …

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