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Google Maps is being used to share links to pirate files

Torrent websites have been in the cross hairs of copyright holders and authorities for a long time.

As a result pirates have had to find clever ways of skirting the long arm of the law to distribute and download content and they may have found the cleverest way yet: Google Maps.

TorrentFreak reports that spammers are using Google Maps’ My Maps feature to distribute links to “pirated” content. We use the term loosely here because with links that download files such as “gone_girl_torrent.exe”what you’re downloading might be more malware than Being John Malkovich.

Links to questionable content have started appearing on Google Maps.

So how does it work?

To be frank it’s incredibly simple. A spammer creates a point on a map and creates a note that contains a link. This rather simple technique turns Google’s quest to remove links to pirated content in search on its head because rather than being able to target websites, Google has to target its own service.

The problem is also not limited to a few instances. Executing a simple search through Google Maps for the key word “fate” returned 1 220 results with the first page dominated by links to supposed pirated copies of the new film.

To our mind Google won’t let pirates get away with this for long but we have to give credit where it’s due, this is one clever idea.

While it should go without saying we don’t encourage our readers to pirate anything, especially using this method which might see you opening up your PC to malicious individuals via malware.

[Via – TorrentFreak] [Image CC by 2.0 – ActuaLitté]

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