This has been discussed numerous times over the years, you can read the court documents for the "kino.to" case which was very similar here: https://openjur.de/u/961112.html
The key is usually the part where it's done with the explicit goal of making money exclusively off copyrighted material ("gewerbsmäßig begangene unerlaubte Verwertung von urheberrechtlich geschützten Werken"), that's also why the court case of TPB was so focused on how much money their ad business made.
Google, YouTube and other similar players are very well integrated in the whole DMCA takedown process and you can't really compare them.
Friends of mine who watch movie streams on similar sites tell me they always get their links from Google. Apparently all you have to do is input the movie name, together with relevant keywords.
Since authorities started cracking down on these streaming link sites, they now have to frequently change their URLs, so ironically general search engines like Google are the fastest way of finding the latest working links. Google has the exact same business model of making money with ads on their site, which people visit to get those links.
It's easy to look up rulings and see that European courts interpret the law the way you say - 100% correct. It's rule of corporations, not rule of law. Google will never be touched, even though they have served a larger number of supposedly illegal links to users. Of course Hollywood doesn't go after them because it's a fight they could not win.
The point is not if you are able to find streaming links on Google in the window of time before the copyright holder files a DMCA (https://lumendatabase.org/notices/search?term=google+streami...) notice and they are blocked from the index or not, but if the site has a legal process to process these.
I don't find it very hard to see a difference between "illegal" streaming site with no contact information, imprint or company behind it vs. large companies that have a working legal framework to take down content and do so all the time.
1. The primary use case of Google is not to find pirated streams.
2. Google responds to lawful take-down requests.
> Google has the exact same business model of making money with ads on their site, which people visit to get those links.
This is a disingenuous claim for the reasons mentioned above.
> Google will never be touched, even though they have served a larger number of supposedly illegal links to users.
False equivalence for the reasons above. Piracy links are a small fraction of Google's use case, not the primary advertised function. They're also responsive to following lawful requests.
> What if I accidentally link a copyrighted work and I happen to run ads on my site?
If you make a site that legitimately serves a different purpose, then you accidentally post a single link to pirated content in a truly good-faith accidental manner, then you response to any requests to take it down with a good-faith action in a timely manner, you are in a completely different category than dedicated piracy websites.
There is no equivalence.
Furthermore, the law generally takes intent into account. You can start reading on the general concept on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mens_rea
Computers don't care what you intended, but the law cares a whole lot. As programmers we sometimes aren't used to that. There law isn't executed by a computer, but by judges who can see that the clear purpose of a website like this is piracy.
Because the real world is vague too. The law is dynamic, not static, any specifics are taken into account by judges and prosecutors, non specifics are speculated, intent and malice is considered, and so on.
>In fact, what if I link to something and it is changed to a copyrighted work silently?
Then you'll 99.99999% just get away with it, as nobody cares for some lowly link.
If (and it's a big if) it attracts attention for some reason (perhaps it gains tons of traffic and suddenly some music/movie label is calling for your prosecution), then you might be prosecuted.
In which case your prosecutor will assume your guilt, your lawyer will argue that you are innocent and somebody switched your original link, and the court will try to find what really went on, after hearing all of them, and checking any evidence, looking into whether there was intent and malice involved, and so on.
Same as if you stayed in a hotel with a friend, and the other day you were found sleeping, and the friend murdered. The law doesn't have a special provision for "but what if somebody else came in the room with a spare key and murdered my friend" either.
The key is usually the part where it's done with the explicit goal of making money exclusively off copyrighted material ("gewerbsmäßig begangene unerlaubte Verwertung von urheberrechtlich geschützten Werken"), that's also why the court case of TPB was so focused on how much money their ad business made.
Google, YouTube and other similar players are very well integrated in the whole DMCA takedown process and you can't really compare them.