This decision is a fairly important one for Google, since it was hoping to get some kind of permanent resolution as to whether it needs to watch what it links to or otherwise (think filesharing sites like The Pirate Bay and Rapidshare). The retreat by Blue Destiny must feel like a bitter-sweet victory in many ways. One result is that the whole question now hangs in the air unresolved, and Google don’t want that… the Search Engine giant is now moving back into the courts to ask for a judgment on its infringing of copyrights in this way. Now the aggressor, Google must think that it is in with a decent chance of success.

Big content industries, many of whom claim to be directly affected by filesharing, will now be very afraid of a Google success in this matter, and they will be watching the saga very closely indeed. A decision in Google’s favor will be very costly for them indeed.

The rest of us will just have to wait and see; watch this space, people!