Nyah! Google is the Kevin the Teenager of th'interwebs

Then Google warns you of the possible costs involved - a case in which the party making the request was hit for $100,000. Yet the DMCA requires no lawyer, by design. The warnings do the trick - and scare most people away. And it's still up there, intact.

Google has promised to act on DMCA requests within 24 hours. But everyone already has to act on DMCA requests immediately. So why this is regarded as a "concession" is a puzzle.

Google actively tidies up its own search results, but pretends to be selectively unable to do so when rightsholders knock on the door. Nyah, it tells photographers, publishers, songwriters, filmmakers and bands. Just like Kevin can go selectively deaf when asked to tidy his bedroom. Nyah. At least it has acknowledged the double standard here, implicitly if not explicitly.

Sarah Hunter, former Blairite culture policy advisor, god-daughter of Lord Irvine and now Head of UK Public Policy at Google, gave a decent impression of Kevin The Teenager to a Westminster conference I had the pleasure of moderating recently. Hunter's contribution was a collection of Noughties-era anti-business, anti-creativity prejudices.

Hunter said she couldn't see why we all had to call creative industries "creative" - shopping was just as important to UK plc. She gave every impression of having scribbled her talk down on an envelope in five minutes - and it stunned the room with its arrogance, complacency and philistinism.

A month ago, we gather, Hunter was mauled in private by Ed Vaizey for not doing more to help small creative music businesses. (The talk mauled everyone - music business and ISPs - for not doing more - but by reminding Google that it has to respect other established UK businesses, Vaizey surprised everyone.)

For lifelong policy wonks like Hunter, who've never really had a proper job in the real world, this must have come as a shock. For Google, they must be wondering if Hunter is now an asset, or a liability.

For some reason, internet utopians still regard Google as the heroic leader in the struggle against The Man - and it let its fans do the talking on the blog post yesterday.

"I think the 'entertainment' industry just needs to realize no one wants to pay their outrageous prices for stuff," writes one freetard. "I don't think copyright has long to live and it will rapidly become irrelevant as internet speeds improve," writes another.

As Kevin The Teenager might say - "whateverrrr...". ®