AfterDawn: News

Legal watchdogs compare Google to Asian organized crime

A recent article on the website of the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) attacks Google for a lack of filtering to remove copyrighted material from YouTube and Google Video.

The article argues that Google avoids filtering this content because of the revenue generated by those websites, and also compares the situation to the large scale production of pirated DVDs in China, but gives no evidence to support the contention that the two are equivalent financially.



It goes on to make an argument that "many other Internet operations such as MySpace, TorrentSpy, DailyMotion and Break.com have set up filtering systems to Block copyrighted material. Google is a $158 Billion company with arguably the most advanced search technology in the world. The argument that they cannot block pirated content because of technological or financial reasons is laughable."

Included in the report is a list of 50 videos that they were able to find links to on Google Video and YouTube. They say they're specifically targeting Google Video because it's generally ignored in favor of YouTube when this issue is discussed.

It also states that "Our goal is to do our best to expose the pirating of copyrighted material by finding and posting as many apparently pirated works as possible. For starters, we are focusing on Google Video because it hosts many full-length movies and concerts and because it has received less attention than YouTube, also owned by Google." While this is a commendable goal, I have to question whether comparing those who violate copyright in this way to Chinese organized crime figures is a step in the right direction.

Source: National Legal and Policy Center

Written by: Rich Fiscus @ 12 Jul 2007 5:32

• Previous article

• Brightcove to launch in UK

• Next article

• Blu-ray backers launch new website

• 8 comments

• ugc

  Quote: Google is a $158 Billion company
  
  Note to self: "Money Talks"

  12.7.2007 06:31 #1

• oappi

  What about Mpaa & Riaa? Their main source of money is extortion? I can see more similarities in this comparison than with google.

  12.7.2007 17:07 #2

• georgeluv

  i like how the focus of this "report" is how much money someone is loosing, not how much of a better place the world is or how many smiles have been put on peoples faces from google running unfiltered.
  
  this is why they dont go after google as hard as something like isohunt, even though the infringing action is the same in both instances: they dont want to push the 160 billion dollar company out of america. google is the darling of wal street, it practicly keeps entire areas of the tech sector afloat, they wouldnt dare fuck with that at this point.
  
  capitalism can suck my dick, its just an excuse for people to take advantage of each other.

  12.7.2007 19:16 #3

• spydah

  They are straight retarded. Why is google to blame for all of the high bloated cost of things around the world. Also for the MPAA and RIAA's greed. They go around snatching extreme amounts of money off people for crap thats not worth it. Its laughable when we get to see these articles accusing everybody of stealing when the real crimes are stealing more then just money from consumers.

  13.7.2007 06:36 #4

• navi1199

  Quote:this is why they dont go after google as hard as something like isohunt, even though the infringing action is the same in both instances: they dont want to push the 160 billion dollar company out of america. google is the darling of wal street, it practicly keeps entire areas of the tech sector afloat, they wouldnt dare fuck with that at this point.All they are going to do is push hard enough so that the CEO of google changes to someone who is "better suited" for the job. AKA a lapdog.
  
  that way the company will still remain but the source of the problem is now gone.

  13.7.2007 12:32 #5

• borhan9

  Its called capitalism if Google can buy them self out of trouble then this is nothing but normal for today's society.

  17.7.2007 02:40 #6

• O_C_FReaK

  Quote:The article argues that Google avoids filtering this content because of the revenue generated by those websites, and also compares the situation to the large scale production of pirated DVDs in China, but gives no evidence to support the contention that the two are equivalent financially.First of all,these two things are irrelevant because in the first example Google makes money when ads are showed and/or clicked whereas in the second paradigm pirated DVDs are copied to be sold illegally to the final consumer.So,it is apparent in the first place that in the latter case I buy something in a lower price whereas in the former one I simply pay zero.Furthermore,where are the figures?How do you support something even if it is based on the wrong basis without facts?This is merely a claim...
  
  Quote:It goes on to make an argument that "many other Internet operations such as MySpace, TorrentSpy, DailyMotion and Break.com have set up filtering systems to Block copyrighted material. Google is a $158 Billion company with arguably the most advanced search technology in the world. The argument that they cannot block pirated content because of technological or financial reasons is laughable."MySpace,TorrentSpy have...filtering systems for copyright???LoL.Don't know about that but let me have here my doubts.
  
  Finally,understand this:Google is a search engine.This means it merely indexes data (i.e. URLs )and cannot possibly know all the time every illegal website.It's like having a worldwide human guider for Earth who knows all the places yet he lacks the ability to know which area is always safe or not simply because this varies from time to time.Of course,there will be some standard areas where they are definitely safe or harmful.However,adequate knowledge of which areas are safe is difficult.In reality,to know when a site is legal or not requires much more evidentiary and elemental data to be collected and inspected from entities other than Google,taking also into considerations factors such as privacy implications,simply because Google is a search engine and not a "Net Policeman".Full stop.

  21.7.2007 19:53 #7

• xhardc0re

  next step by the MAFIAA... forced filtering of all pirated sites in search engine results. *sad

  28.9.2007 05:00 #8