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Google Removes Links in Response to DMCA Complaint
dioscaido writes "If you search Google for Kazaa Lite, you'll find the results a bit lacking. Ironically enough, Sharman Networks, using the DMCA, filed a legal complaint to block Kazaa Lite sites. " Google links the DMCA request at the end of the results which contain the URLs in question, but the URLs aren't really the point. It's scary that the DMCA makes URLs a copyright violation. How long before libraries can't index books? Or own them?
Thats 'Sharman' networks :)
When I installed the latest version of KazaaLite it automatically copied the installation file into my shared folder. Just search for klitekpp242e.exe on Kazaa.
It's a good source for information on exactly this subject. No, I don't run it. ;-)
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
This has happened before. I don't think the DMCA complaint was very effective that time, either.
I thought the RIAA had a part in this, noticing references to Kazaa and DMCA. I find it a little unusual that Sharman had a part in it. Oddly enough the links are still quite available, and search results now point to K++ (a better Kazaa derivative), and the original links are still available. Seems almost like a "Screw you" gesture by google to Sharman if you ask me. Just goes to show that once the cat is out of the bag on the net, its almost impossible to recover it.
Yes, they have. Or at least the German Google has. However, the second result, among many others, links to a German page promoting Kazaa Lite. (Note that the first result contains a so-called "dialer" - every German Slashdotter likely has heard of them -, ie. is basically a fraud to steal your money.) The German Google also has the same link to the letter they received.
Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
search "k++"
workd for me this morning
Because you expose yourself to a lawsuit by whomever you complained about every time you make a bogus claim. A small handful of users won't have enough resources to sue the RIAA, but the major ISPs would certainly help their users file a class action lawsuit against you...
Searching for "Kazaa" gives a Kazaa Lite link in the 4th position, and "Kazaa Lite" gives lots of KL links. I don't know if this means they've changed their minds or if the original change just hasn't propagated everywhere yet.
Google really needs to grow a spine in matters like this. Let them know how you feel about censorship by contacting them. I've posted a rant on this topic here on my site. The rant contains contact information to do something about this, but I'm not a nazi, so here:
Google can be contacted at comments@google.com.
And here:
Google, Inc.
2400 Bayshore Parkway
Mountain View CA 94043
phone: (650) 623-4000
fax: (650) 618-1499
I'm sure they would love to hear what the Slashdot crowd thinks about injustice like this.
StickMan
www.rageagainst.net
You know this looks like big brother authoritive business. I mean when I look at this I see the DCMA group attack sites that have little or no involment with p2p sites. I mean its like attacking puppies with a lawn mower. Our right as a citizen are being violated by big business, who are attemping to control our lives. Its like the Futurama episode where they put advertisements in your dreams. Any ways Congress real research, and better information then to listen to people like the MPAA and the RIAA.
It's fair use. Letting other people borrow your copy of a copyrighted item. As long as you aren't making multiple copies, you can give that copy that you bought to other people. What is scary is this: No public access to online journals
Because the domain is owned by Google Inc, not by an English entity that could be held responsible. The same for the netblock. So it's effectively just an USAian site which happens to have a pointer to it that ends in co.uk.
0x or or snor perron?!
Uh, explain to me how Kazaa does music well, because I've found Soulseek to be about 10 times better, if not more, than Kazaa, for music.
Score: Google 1
Kazaa 0
DMCA 0
Just do you google searches through a european proxy or something..
Software should be free as in speech, but if we also get some free beer, all the better.
It seems that once again it's time to place Blue ribbons on our websites and webpages...
Future Wiki -- If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.
This may explain it.
It may also explain why the latest release of KazaaLite is labelled "K++".
As Jonathan Swift said:
"So, naturalists observe, a flea
Has smaller fleas that on him prey;
And these have smaller still to bite 'em;
And so proceed ad infinitum."
Ceci n'est pas une signature
3.2 Except as expressly permitted in this Licence, you agree not to reverse engineer, de-compile, disassemble, alter, duplicate, modify, rent, lease, loan, sublicense, make copies, create derivative works from, distribute or provide others with the Software in whole or part, transmit or communicate the application over a network.
Kazaa Lite is a modified version, and thus not allowed to be distributed. They don't have to claim it's their own original work for it to be piracy.
The Alien Tort Claims Act of 1789 allows it.
The act gives Federal jusidiction over "any civil action by an alien for a tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States." The ATCA can be used via proxy by non-US entities as long as they can establish some reasonable connection to a US entity, such as relatives (in the case of people) or parents/subsidiaries (in the case of companies). Since copyright is covered in numerous treaties, particularly the Berne Convention, it is open season.
Google provides a link to the "NOTICE OF COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT" that Google was served. Here you'll find a list of the DMCA offending links. I suppose it's only a matter of time before the Notice itself is copyrighted, making such a posting illegal under DMCA. That would require yet another "NOTICE OF COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT"!!
Odd, when they make it public information on their website (whose URL isn't blocked out in the PDF file) and they don't have any other branches:
Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, L.L.P.
15821 Ventura Boulevard
Suite 525
Encino, CA 91436
(818) 444-4500
(818) 444-4520 fax
info@biztechlaw.com e-mail
On a side note -- honestly curious, not meant to be trolling -- how is 378,000 results "a bit lacking"? And they only removed 14?
As for the blocked links, "the Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it." -- L. Peter Deutsch (or John Gilmore)
Alltheweb
Before I settled on Google, I remember these guys were running neck and neck with Google producing very high quality search results. Give it a try.
It's a shame Google chose to remove the links instead of fighting the case.
DMCA was signed by President Clinton.
Goofed up there, buddy. You forgot a Z. If you look on this page, down at the bottom you'll see a notice about the DMCA.
kazaa is great for single songs, emule is much better for albums. If you are tired of getting fake files off kazaa then give soulseek a go, it is technilogically inferior to both emule and kazaa but I have yet to get a single fake song off of it.
I clicked on the sample search for "Kazaa Lite" and the second link said "download Kazaa Lite K++" and the third link said "Official Kazaa Lite K++ Website"
Google: 1-0
Sharman: 0-1
STFU about soulseek, n00b. Keep it on the d-lo. W3rd.
At the bottom of the Google results page is the statement saying that some results were filtered out and a link to the DMCA complaint. The complaint has all the links there in plain text. It is also hosted on chillingeffects.org, with links to explanations of the complaint's details.
Google have done ok. They make sure that you know the search has been censored. The links that are missing are available via cut and paste. If you didn't know what the DMCA was before, Google link to a site which will tell you more than you wanted to know, and from a sceptical point of view.
You're forgetting that the FastTrack protocol was recently (Few months ago?) broken, and that there are opensourced programs that can connect to the FastTrack network (Kazaa's network).
I believe it's a mod of OpenFT, though maybe by now they've integrated the FastTrack compatible code into the main fork.
So, in other words, you now really can use opensourced programs instead of Kazaa to connect to the same network.
Alltheweb doesn't quite have a Google Groups or a News Google equivalent (only news search; no headline parser), but the regular search is pretty cool.
More than mere navel gazing.
Google's policy is that after getting a DMCA complaint like this, they contact the owner of the site in question with a copy of the complaint and a time limit.
The site in question can ignore it, in which case Google does like in this case, removing the entry and providing a link to the details of the complaint.
However, if they site responds that they aren't infringing, Google will ignore the complaint and leave the site in search results, leaving it up to the two parties to duke it out with lawyers.
In other words, Google stays "neutral" in the whole thing if it's disputed, but a site has to at least respond to the complaint in order for them to bother to refuse to delist them.
The party of stupid and the party of evil get together and do something both stupid and evil, then call it bipartisan.