Despite not being named as a defendant, Google is in the middle of a lawsuit between media companies and online movie pirates, reports CNET.

The suit accuses download sites offering movies and television-show episodes of leading the online audience to believe - via advertising, among other means - that the sites were legal. All the sites are all ones that advertise through Google's AdSense program, and the defendants counter that Google is partly to blame in that it guided them during the keyword-selection and buying process.

They say Google encouraged them to buy keywords that might have been misleading to people seeing the ads. Google contends it prohibits advertisers from using AdSense to sell material that infringes on copyright.

Google has said it will adjust its guidelines and policies so that its advertising sales staff is better equipped to spot keywords that might advertise pirated content.