Google has certainly had its fair share of legal woes lately, and as accusations mount as to how the company reacts to piracy, their view on sites and applications that have any direct correlation with piracy has also underwent some changes. Because of this, Google has started to take a more aggressive stance on piracy-related apps, and recently removed multiple applications from the Play Store despite appeals from their developers.

TorrentFreak is reporting that developers of the following applications recently received emails from Google detailing their apps removal from the Play Store:

The Pirate Bay Proxy

The Pirate Bay Premium

The Pirate Bay Mirror

PirateApp

Developers of these applications received the following email from Google in regards to the termination of the apps:

Interestingly enough, there was no mention of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in the email, meaning that this decision seems to be a preemptive one on Google’s part versus a forced one. Developers of the above apps also received a “policy strike” from Google, which can lead to the closing of their developer accounts altogether if similar issues persist.

Naturally, the affected developers haven’t taken it too well:

[quote qtext=”The app is no different from Firefox or Chrome in that it’s a tool which provides access to TPB or any other web address.” qperson=”Davin – Developer of The Pirate Bay Proxy” qsource=”” qposition=”right”]

Google is apparently taking this decision very seriously, as appeals of the decision are not being considered. This was demonstrated when “The Pirate Bay Proxy” app developer Davin (who states that the app itself has no illegal functionality) attempted to appeal the decision, only to be informed by Google that ““We have reviewed your appeal and will not be reinstating your app. This decision is final and we will not be responding to any additional emails regarding this removal.”

Those that have already downloaded the applications will find that they are still working, and have not been deactivated as of the time of writing this.

What do you think of Google’s handling of this matter? Justified, or a bit on the harsh side? Let us know what you think in the comments below.