Everybody seems to be looking at this a little too negatively. 'Demoting' is ultimately a meaningless thing - google does not specify how much the algorithm is going to penalize these sites, just that they will. And they aren't going to make anything disappear from the internet, TPB will still be there and you can still search for content from the TPB homepage. Is it really a big deal if a google search for game of thrones returns the HBO site before a torrent site?
This move is going to give google some serious brownie points with the content providers though, which is a good thing for all of us because it means that good content might become more accessible legally.
If a result is (wrongly) pushed off the first page, much less down to the 3rd or 4th, it may as well not be there for almost all users. That, combined with Google's dominant position in search means that pages may well effectively be erased from the internet as far as many users are concerned.
This move is going to give google some serious brownie points with the content providers though, which is a good thing for all of us because it means that good content might become more accessible legally.