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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?
KazaaLite is a hack of Kazaa, and thus blatant piracy. But Kazaa itself is dubious stuff, filled with spyware. Sigh. Perhaps we will see a version of KazaaLite distributed through Kazaa?
Ceci n'est pas une signature
A company whose entire business model is based on facilitating copyright infringement calls "Smithers, unleash the hounds" on Google over another company it believes is infringing its copyright.
CEE5210S The signal SIGHUP was received.
Create a nice recording of some chimes, name it chimes.wav. Now, write letters to ISPs around the saying that someone with chimes.wav (a standard windows installed WAV file) is violating your copyright.
If everyone on slashdot sends a dozen bogus requests, all around the same time, and completely flood the ISPs and halt their ability to respond to these requests then I think we'd see finally see an uproar of the problems this bill causes.
The RIAA can send out bogus claims, why can't we help them make the DMCA so obnoxious that it must be stopped?
How long before libraries can't index books? Or own them?
That is quite interesting question. Let's start to think about it.. Why should libraries have the right to loan copyrighted material such as books and audio CDs to people? People are not paying royalties to anyone when they read a book or listen to CD that is loaned from library. Isn't this wrong?
Is this the beginning of the end? When google stops returning the results I am looking for, it is time to start looking for a new search engine that will.
This is hilarious:
Before I even had a chance to scroll down the page to look at the DMCA message, I noticed that the Adwords are full of links to Kazaa Lite!
I guess Google's financial team is a little tougher than their search team.
It is interesting to note that the version of Google for India also carries a DMCA notice for Kazaa Lite. Does the U.S. government make worldwide law now? The DMCA is just a local law affecting less than 5% of the people in the world.
The warning is hidden at the bottom of the page (how often do we scroll down that far for results when searching through Google?). I think the warning should be the first thing on the page, with highlighted text.
Does anyone else wonder whether Kevin Burmeister is the real force behind this company? And does anyone wonder whether all the shots are really being called in LA (and not in the pacific tax-haven they'd have us all believe)? Who knows?
Unfortunately, the same message is displayed on the google.co.uk version, where the DCMA should have no effect - why can't they just have the restriction on the .com site?
I have just tried Kazaa Lite on various other search engines and meta search engines, and without fail they return at least one of the forbidden 8 sites that Google removes:
Altavista
Webcrawler
Teoma
Dogpile
Obviously not a comprehensive effort (I have a 3yr old son to entertain right now and that's much more important!), but it leads to the conclusion that either the complainant thinks the world revolves around Google OR the other sites haven't checked their mail yet!
As others have pointed out, the genie is out of the bottle and so semi-hiding the links is going to be pointless. I loved the written up DMCA complaint--putting the list of banned sites on it is kind of like having an English test question that says: Write down the correct spelling of following word: 'incomprehensible'? .
AT&ROFLMAO
Which is really what's funny about this. By so helpfully providing the links in the complaint, one needs to only do a little more searching.
:)
It would've been a LOT more fun had they actually linked them all...
"...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
Whilst this is the first case I have heard of where a search engine has been instructed by an external body to remove links or sites from its search results, this is by and large a terrible thing to happen. The removal of certain sites from the search results is a step in the wrong direction, and if this type of thing should continue then google will rapidly start declining in popularity.
..... I surely hope not ...
:)
Now that i have read this news I feel that google is a tainted service, and no-longer can i trust it as a search engine to pull up valuable and unbiased results. Google should stand their ground and not be bullied into filtering there results like this. I for one will be looking out for a google alternative, it just sucks that google have had years of development and years of experience in making a such a damn good product. So who's the next contender to the throne ? MSN ?
some of us have music to help us through the dark times
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
The funny thing is, I noticed they demanded one additional site to be taken down, in addition to all the Kazaa Lite hosts: www.zeropaid.com.
I'm not sure what your definition of "valid" is, but I did a quick check over at the site, which is a file sharing news site, and there was no actual Kazaa Lite software onsite. Instead, the software download link pointed to one of the sites mentioned in the DMCA takedown demand. In other words, looks like they weren't just going after the biggest sites that had the software, but a site that even only linked to the software site. In otherwords Google had to remove a link to a link. I'd say that's going a bit far beyond what even the DMCA thinks is valid.
Apparently there are pieces of information that Americans are not allowed to write down. We are definitely edging towards thought crime here. Between this and the illegality of writing virii (i know its spelled wrong but it looks better), we are on our way! I just wonder when someone will get punished for writing these things with pen & paper instead of electronically...
You want to know why they would do this? Follow the money. Kazaa is going to start a premium service. This "Kazaa Plus" is to cost $29.95 and will give you what you can all ready get for free with Kazaa Lite w/K++.
I'm in Canada and I just got my very own DMCA notice regarding my website. I run a small video game fan site and posted some video game screenshots from GameSpot. Appearantly they didn't take too kindly... *cough*assholes*cough* :)
The reason that this was blocked was because kazaalite contains an ip blocker, with an automatic updater to get new ranges of RIAA scanners, MPAA, etc. Its hard to get a subpeona when the connection is dropped. So why not block access to a kazaalite site by dropping its largest referrer, google.
Also to clear things up, there are different kazaa types.
Kazaa -- Normal Kazaa
Kazaagold -- Pay-for-Kazaa
Kazaadiet -- Simple spyware removal
Kazaalite -- Spyware removal, more features, and third party tools
Kazaalite k++ -- Different from kazaalite, includes more features, and a constant pl of 1000
Where can I find a list of all Lite URLS? But where else, in the complaint itself! Seems I'll be bmarking Chilling Effects as an underground search engine now.
Why not go to this page and complain to google that you are fed up with this nonsense and will change search engines as a response... http://www.google.com/contact/search.html
We should just start using the Spanish word "estadounidense" as an adjective for the USA. In a context-less situation like the Internet, using the word American is not very specific and somewhat offensive. And USAians looks kind of silly.
I guess its like how people suggest we should start using "libre" for Free Software to better differentiate it from free as in gratis software. I'm all for taking liberally from other languages when English isn't specific enough and another one is.
In all honesty so did I. Technically the graphics don't even belong to GameSpot, they belong to Electronic Arts but I don't have the time nor money to fight it... Here is a snippet:
--------------
Re: NOTICE AND TAKEDOWN REQUEST UNDER THE DIGITAL MILLENNIUM COPYRIGHT ACT, SECTION 512(c)(3)
Pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA"), we are writing to provide you notice of your illegal activities and copyright infringement. I, acting as CNET and GameSpot's agent, have a good faith belief that the use of GameSpot's copyrighted material in this manner is not authorized by us, our agent, or the law.
You're forgetting that this is Canada... The DMCA has no effect here. Assuming your hosting is in Canada, you can simply send a reply telling gamespot that you are not under the jurisdiction of the DMCA, and that you will not be complying with their request.
:p
If your hosting is in the US... Well, then you're in a bit more of a bind. IANAL, but I'd suspect that while YOU are not liable, the American hosting company would be, and would be forced to remove the content from their servers.
Of course, surely you chose Canadian web hosting to keep your dollars in the country, no?
What gets me is that Google isn't listing the URLs for other languages or countries.
I know that there is nothing to stop people in the US from using foreign google searches but must the rest of the world be subjected to bad US laws?...
I also got one from my ISP (Comcast). Apparently my roomie downloaded a "cracked" version (it showed up in a websearch) of a program that she wanted to try and installed it. It didn't work, but it pointed her to the RIGHT site and she downloaded the demo -- which did work. But a week later, we got a letter (snailmail) telling me that we are violating the DMCA and need to explain what we are doing about it -- it even contained the name of the program and the words "cracked version." Apparently the program "phones home" when it thinks it is a cracked version.
So much for them ever selling either of us... or anyone we know... that software!