Longtime U2 and PJ Harvey manager Paul McGuinness has come out swinging against Google for not doing more to prevent illegal downloads of music while calling the search engine a "monopoly."

Speaking at annual music industry conference MIDEM, currently underway in Cannes, France, McGuinness also questioned Google's rationale in supporting the campaign against SOPA/PIPA anti-piracy legislation in the US, which saw the search engine's logo blacked out for one day earlier this month in protest.

"Why are they not trying to solve the future in a more generous way?" McGuinness said during a panel titled called 'Why copyright still matters online,' according to a report posted at smartypants music blog The Quietus. "Ultimately it's in their interests that the flow of content will continue and that won't happen unless it's paid for."

McGuinness singled out Google for not hiding search results that lead people towards music available for illegal download. "It amazes me that Google has not done the right thing," he said. "The experience of people when they go on Google and look for U2's music or PJ Harvey's music is a shopping list of illegal opportunities to get their songs. They have done nothing meaningful to discourage this fact."

He continued: "Though there is some improvement in the digital environment in terms of people getting paid, the vast majority of content distributed through their pipes is not paid for. That's, in my view, utterly, utterly wrong."

"I don't think we can rely on politicians who are afraid of being unpopular to accomplish this without some real willingness - as I say, generosity - on the part of the technology area which... has shown this in the last few weeks to be very well able to make its case in a popular way." McGuinness was doubtless referencing Google's above-mentioned one-day logo blackout. Wikipedia went further with its own protest on January 18, literally blacking out its site for 24 hours.

Furthermore, according to The Quietus, McGuinness said that the recent decision by Google to back the anti-SOPA campaign was motivated by business, not ethics: "Never underestimate the ability of a monopoly to defend itself."