Netflix has been removed from the American film industry's search engine for legal streaming sites.

WhereToWatch, which was set up by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) in 2014, lets users search a range of legal streaming services for their favourite TV shows and films.

The idea was to provide internet users with a handy resource which would steer them away from illegal streams and downloads, protecting them from potential legal trouble and helping the studios at the same time.

However, as TorrentFreak reports, Netflix has been removed from the WhereToWatch search results, despite being the one of the most-used legal streaming services in the world.

Netflix results have also been removed from the UK equivalent of the site, FindAnyFilm, although some Netflix results are still available on GoWatchIt, the search engine which powers WhereToWatch.

FindAnyFilm will readily direct users to Amazon Instant Video, iTunes or Google Play links, but Netflix is notable in its absence.

The unusual absence is down to Netflix's retiring of its public API - as a spokesman said in 2014: "As Netflix continues to grow internationally, the emphasis of our engineering efforts is to satisfy a growing member base and a growing number of devices. To better focus our efforts and to align them with the needs of our global member base, we will be retiring the public API program."