New Google Search Draws Concern from Internet Freedom Watchers

By emeadows
August 15, 2012

Google’s decision to put sites with “high numbers of removal notices for infringing copyright” lower in its search results has somewhat appeased Hollywood while also raising “questions about fairness and the ability of suspected violators to challenge the move,” writes PCWorld.
While the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America applaud the move, advocates of Internet freedom aren’t so sure about it.
“It’s an interesting move by Google, which has long been criticized by Hollywood for its hands-off approach to copyright infringement,” notes the article.
Google says it can now get involved because of how often it receives copyright removal notices. “It says it is now receiving and processing more copyright removal notices every day than it did in all of 2009 — more than 4.3 million URLs in the last 30 days alone,” reports PCWorld.
But some groups are expressing concern. “In particular, we worry about the false positives problem,” notes the Electronic Frontier Foundation on its website. “For example, we’ve seen the government wrongly target sites that actually have a right to post the allegedly infringing material in question or otherwise legally display content. In short, without details on how Google’s process works, we have no reason to believe they won’t make similar, over-inclusive mistakes, dropping lawful, relevant speech lower in its search results without recourse for the speakers.”

No Comments Yet