Pirate Bay is back on Google, and back online, following a double whammy of downtime and a wrongly served DMCA notice.

Last week thepiratebay.org was removed from Google's search results. The page revealed that Google was responding to a Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown notice - a legal warning from the owners of copyrighted material.

Google has now explained that this was a mistake - thepiratebay.org address was wrongly included in a takedown notice from a firm which specialises in protecting porn copyrights. Takedown notices are used to warn a company that it is hosting copyrighted material and that it must be removed or legal action will follow.

Google apologised for the glitch.

The file sharing site also suffered a three hour break in service on Friday. ®

Related stories

• Pirate Bay appeal slips into next year (19 October 2009)
• Pirate Bay co-founders deny ownership of site (9 October 2009)
• Pirate Bay buyer admits doubts over deal (7 October 2009)
• Pirate Bay sinks again after Dutch ISP complies to cut off order (6 October 2009)
• Google strips Pirate Bay homepage from search results (2 October 2009)
• Pirate Bay's would-be saviour hit by 'bankruptcy order' (18 September 2009)
• Database containing 1.8m UK postcode locations leaks online (16 September 2009)
• Swedish ISP to appeal Pirate Bay cut-off verdict (15 September 2009)
• Pirate Bay suitor shoved off Swedish stock exchange (10 September 2009)
• Pirate Bay suitor gets backing for buy (27 August 2009)
• Pirate Bay saviour faces more trouble (27 August 2009)
• Trading in The Pirate Bay bidder stopped over deal funding (21 August 2009)