Google Alters Algorithm to Account for Piracy Potential
Google will begin considering the number of valid copyright removal notices it receives when determining page ranking in search results, starting this week, the company said Friday(http://xrl.us/bnj8nj). “Sites with high numbers of removal notices may appear lower in our results,” said a blog post written by Senior Vice President-Engineering Amit Singhal. “This ranking change should help users find legitimate, quality sources of content more easily -- whether it’s a song previewed on NPR’s music website, a TV show on Hulu or new music streamed from Spotify."
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Google is “now receiving and processing more copyright removal notices every day than we did in all of 2009 -- more than 4.3 million URLs in the last 30 days alone,” Singhal wrote. “We will now be using this data as a signal in our search rankings."
The move “has signaled a new willingness to value the rights of creators,” RIAA CEO Cary Sherman said in response to Google’s change, but he hopes the search giant does more. “As Google itself has acknowledged, this is not the only approach, and of course, the details of implementation will matter. Moreover, there are many more actions that we hope Google will take."
The RIAA criticized Google’s removal request process in a blog post earlier this year(http://xrl.us/bnj8m5). RIAA Executive Vice President Brad Buckles said copyright holders are hindered by the limits on how often they can request the removal of infringing material and the fact that Google has no system to ensure that copyrighted material remains taken down once it has been removed. “In order to truly address this problem,” Buckles wrote, “Google needs to take its commitment to fight piracy more seriously by removing the limits on queries and take downs, by taking down multiple files of the same recording instead of just one when a ‘representative sample’ of infringing files is provided to them, and by establishing meaningful repeat infringer policies."
Expressing optimism the algorithmic change should help customers find legitimate copyrighted content, MPAA Senior Executive Vice President Michael O'Leary said the group will be watchful moving forward. “We will be watching this development closely -- the devil is always in the details -- and look forward to Google taking further steps to ensure that its services favor legitimate businesses and creators, not thieves."
Public Knowledge Senior Staff Attorney John Bergmayer expressed concern that the change would harm innocent websites. “[A]ny new system such as this has potential dangers and unintended consequences, and can be abused,” he said (http://xrl.us/bnj8nd). “Google is undoubtedly aware of this -- but it remains to be seen how it will respond to problems that arise, and whether it will continue to put the interests of users first."
Google’s move could pressure other smaller websites to enforce copyright beyond the legal obligations established in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and the change might affect lawful websites that are inherently prone to facing removal requests, Bergmayer said. “Google should make sure that its system accounts for the fact that some sites will simply receive more notices than others, even though the content those sites host is not more likely to be infringing,” he wrote, citing websites that are larger, more popular, host file storage or incorporate user-generated content. “One of the purposes of the DMCA was to protect sites that host user content and allow them to operate free of legal uncertainty. ... Google should make sure that its new system does not disproportionally [sic] penalize sites with lawful business models,” he wrote.
Because it is Google, not the websites themselves, that receive the takedown requests, Bergmayer said, “it is harder for sites to challenge questionable notices sent to search engines than it is for sites (and the users of sites) to challenge notices they themselves have received.” This, he explained, could create “a strong incentive for entities to send DMCA notices to search engines to suppress their rivals."
According to Google’s Transparency Report (http://xrl.us/bnj8m7), the company does not comply with “inaccurate or unjustified copyright removal requests for search results that clearly do not link to infringing content.” The report also explains how websites who feel their content does not violate copyright can file a DMCA counter-notification form to appeal a removal request. A Google spokeswoman declined to comment except to point to its explanatory materials on how it handles takedown requests.
Why the announcement came on Friday, when Google had held a news conference earlier last week to discuss search updates, puzzled Danny Sullivan, editor of industry blog Search Engine Land (http://xrl.us/bnj8oi). “But there was no time to mention this? No time for what’s arguably the biggest search news Google announced this week?” he said. “Google told me the details for the DMCA filter were only finalized this morning. Even if so, it feels like this could have been discussed at the press event, rather that pushed off to a Friday afternoon. That comes across as Google hoping those who worry about how this might be abused won’t notice.”