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Who Sends Google the Most Takedown Notices? Microsoft
nk497 writes "Google has released details on the copyright takedown notices it's received over the past year, and the most requests by far have been from Microsoft. Over the past year, Google has received DMCA takedown notices for 2,544,209 URLs over Microsoft-related piracy, with NBC and the RIAA ranking second and third. Many of the reports do not come directly from companies such as Microsoft, but via firms set up only to chase copyright issues. The most popular targets appear to be file-sharing sites. 'These days it's not unusual for us to receive more than 250,000 requests each week, which is more than what copyright owners asked us to remove in all of 2009,' said Fred von Lohmann, Google senior copyright counsel, adding it takes on average 11 hours for Google to take action."
I'm a bootysnap dancer. Give me your regards.
Around a year ago, I was mindlessly surfing the internet (as I often do) when I came across an enigmatic web page. The page, which looked like a warning from my web browser, informed me that I had a virus installed on my computer and that to fix it, I should install a strange anti-virus program that I'd never heard of (which I found peculiar considering the fact that I already had anti-virus software installed on my computer). Despite having reservations about installing it, I did so anyway (since it appeared to be a legitimate warning).
I cannot even fathom what I was thinking at that time. Soon after attempting to install the so-called anti-virus software, my desktop background image changed into a large red warning sign, warnings about malware began making appearances all over the screen, and a strange program I'd never seen before began nagging me to buy a program to remove the viruses. What should have been obvious previously then became clear to me: that software was a virus. Frustrated by my own stupidity, I began tossing objects around the room and cursing at no one in particular.
After I calmed down, I reluctantly took my computer to a local PC repair shop and steeled myself for the incoming fee. When I entered, I noticed that there were four men working there, and all of them seemed incredibly nice (the shop itself was clean and stylish, too). After I described the situation to them, they gave me a big smile (as if they'd seen and heard it all before), accepted the job, and told me that the computer would be working like new again in a few days. At the time, I was confident that their words held a great degree of truth to them.
The very next day, while I was using a local library's computer and browsing the internet, I came across a website dedicated to a certain piece of software. It claimed that it could fix up my PC and make it run like new again. I knew, right then, merely from viewing a single page on the website, that it was telling the truth. I cursed myself for not discovering this excellent piece of software before I had taken my PC to the PC repair shop. "It would've saved me money. Oh, well. I'm sure they'll get the job done just fine. I can always use this software in the future to conserve money." Those were my honest thoughts at the time.
Two days later, my phone rang after I returned home from work. I immediately was able to identify the number: it was the PC repair shop's phone number. Once I answered, something strange occurred; the one on the other end of the line spoke, in a small, tormented voice, "Return. Return. Return. Return. Return." No matter what I said to him, he would not stop repeating that one word. Unsettled by this odd occurrence, I traveled to the PC repair shop to find out exactly what happened.
Upon arriving inside the building, I looked upon the shop, which was a shadow of its former self, in shock. There were countless wires all over the floor, smashed computer parts scattered in every direction I looked, fallen shelves on the ground, desks flipped over on the ground, and, to make matters even worse, there was blood splattered all over the wall. Being the reasonable, upstanding, college-educated citizen that I was, I immediately concluded that the current state of the shop was due to none other than an employee's stress from work. I looked around a bit more, spotted three bodies sitting against the wall, and in the middle of the room, I spotted my computer. "Ah. There it is." Directly next to it was the shop's owner, sitting on the ground in the fetal position.
When I questioned him, he kept repeating a single thing again and again: "Cannot be stopped! Cannot be stopped! Cannot be stopped!" I could not get him to tell me what was wrong, but after a bit of pondering, I quickly figured out precisely what happened: they were unable to fix my computer like they had promised. Disgusted by their failure, I turned to the shop's owner (who I now noticed had a gun to his head), and spat in his general direction. I then turned my back to him as
Must be an odd position to be in where your competitor can take down the main thing you do. Ok, infringement obviously needs to be taken down quickly, but I can see there being a huge issue here later.
Is there something that matches this in Bing? And if there is, wonder how quickly Google will take down pirate apk sites.
Ok, had to pause a moment there. Doing a search for;
"free pirate android apps"
on google/bing produces wildly different results as you'd imagine. Wonder how this will go.
Waiting for an amusing sig.
Who knew they were so protective of Bob and Clippy?
The DMCA seems broken. No one can possibly deal with all those notices. They'd have to use an automated system or have an inconceivable amount of manpower on their hands. To top it all off, there are bound to be mistakes.
Copyright enforcement is just scary.
The real business case is no longer the software. As the article says, there are now dedicated companies who chase copyright issues. If they cannot find a copyright issue, they'll go bankrupt. If they find more copyright issues than last year (and win a few lawsuits), they'll make profit.
I guess that soon enough, we cannot change the copyright laws anymore, because the copyright-chasers would lose their revenues.
It's interesting how many of these requests are received, but I couldn't easily find out how many of them were declined. Does anyone have a link to this information? It seems a bit surprising if there are not a single false positive in all those millions of requests. Is it the case that once someone asks for something to be taken down, Google cannot decline, even if the request is wrong?
Korma: Good
Of course not. The goal is less about taking down the sites and more about burning Google's resources through excessive takedown requests. Google ought to queue the requests in a FIFO pipe and process a small number per day. Maybe they could require payment for the processing, which does cost Google real money, to offset the time and resources wasted.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
Hey! On a related note now there is a list of all file sharing domains in one place: http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/removals/copyright/domains/?r=all-time - neatly organized.
Your pictures can be used in ads if it is on their computer even after you remove your account,
... US-style.
== Jez ==
Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
These days it's not unusual for us to receive more than 250,000 requests each week, which is more than what copyright owners asked us to remove in all of 2009
In that case, they'll win the war any day now.
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
why isn't there a google alternative that is worth a damn, that isn't in the US, isn't hosted in the US and doesn't use a US-controlled TLD, and thus, not subject to this DMCA bullshit?
..to just not index any page containing the term Microsoft? Just add it to the stopword list already.
2,544,152 of these were for "www.google.com"
Can I get some best guesses as to what year the first shooting war between two modern corporations will take place?
It has to be a) an actual declaration of hostilities, with a competing facility being destroyed and b) there has to be human casualties (preferably employees of one of the corporations).
I'm setting the over/under at 2020. Winner gets paid in Bitcoin.
2001 only counts if you're a ronpaulie.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Right, they receive 250,000 requests each week, and it takes 11 hours to deal with them. That means they need 68,750 people working 40 hours a week to handle it, or twice their total headcount.
I assume that they only reason they are processing these takedown notices at all is that there is a legal requirement in the DMCA for them to comply, probably within a few days.
Fred von Lohmann, as a lawyer, is completely full of shit. Either the numbers are not that high, or they do not take 11 hours to process.
Google could hire twice the amount of firms like Microsoft is doing, and harass the hell out of Bing.
As google posts all takedown notices to Chilling Effects, anytime I do a search I know I can visit the URLs in the CE document and get a real, valid DDL source about 98% of the time.
What are most of the top links MS requests be removed?
Porn and Piracy sites!
Its in MS's interest to remove them from Google and not itself to drive those users to Bing.
Very clever!!!
As apple has shown us over and over again, if you can't outdo your competition, go through legal channels to remove it.
I guess Microsoft thought it'd try it as well.
What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
...could we at least CONSIDER that some of these claims might be legit?
Microsoft publishes a lot of software. It's expensive stuff. People pirate it. There are a lot of places on the internet you could go to get a copy of Windows for free. I'd expect there are a lot of legit sites that Microsoft is well within their rights to request takedown on.
How many of their requests are legit vs. "trying to silence our critics," I don't know. And neither do you.
Assuming all their claims are frivolous and Microsoft hates free speech is a little premature from the facts in evidence (which are pretty thin). I realize this is Slashdot, and they're Micr$oft, and we hate them, but c'mon.
Despite the overt psychosis of the story's protagonist, this ad is marvelous!!! I honestly wish you the best and hope this ad medium will be continued in other stories for other products ;-)
Slashdot Valentines Beta Massacre: iT WORKED! The boycotts killed Beta!!
This sort of scamming is totally normal for MS. We do not see these sorts of scams from Google.
Computers nowadays don't come with a Windows CD. So if a virus messes up my computer, what am I to do?
I have always downloaded a Windows ISO off the Pirate Bay, which I do with an entirely clean conscience, since I own a valid Windows Key, which Microsoft also checks when I actually install windows. Websites like the Pirate Bay is what makes it actually a tiny bit user-friendly to use Windows, in spite of Microsoft.
Now, given that the DMCA was NOT supposed to close down legit businesses, why should this illegal abuse of the system be accepted, even if most are right (which isn't what you're asking either)?
2,544,209 URLs that Microsoft has checked and confirmed in order to meet the good faith requirement of the DMCA.
Imagine the incredible number of jobs the copyright-infringement industry has created.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
Maybe Microsoft just hasn't figured out how to clean links out of Bing yet, it might not be malice at all.
Google is just a search engine. Shouldn't the take-down notices be sent to the website host instead? Let search engines just do what they are intended to do, which is locate content.
Google, the search engine company, has a list of 7000+ "owners" and it can't be searched - or even displayed on one page so I can search with my browser? I can only look 20 at a time? 350 pages?
When they get more take down requests in ONE WEEK than they did for the entire year of 2009, that implies that something is wrong. Is it the take down system, the copyright system, or the ones that decide to break the rules? Something is broken here.
If you're genuinely interested.
Computers nowadays don't come with a Windows CD. So if a virus messes up my computer, what am I to do?
1. All major manufacturers provide a way to burn "recovery disks".
2. If you don't create recovery disks, you call the OEM and they'll ship you the appropriate disks. More details here.
3. P.S. - you should've installed MSE/not clicked on that unknown attachment, then, shouldn't you (snark off).
I have always downloaded a Windows ISO off the Pirate Bay, which I do with an entirely clean conscience, since I own a valid Windows Key, which Microsoft also checks when I actually install windows.
4. You can call Microsoft direct if you have a key. On their web site, they provide this contact information:
http://www.google.com/search?q=windows+7+filetype%3Atorrent
Computers nowadays don't come with a Windows CD. So if a virus messes up my computer, what am I to do?
Install MyCleanPC, which doesn't get Windows viruses.
Clean, precise, pangolin-powered. MyCleanPC.
It's probably because of the two quotes:
Although 'piracy' has been an integral part of Microsoft's marketing and dominance on the desktop, even to the point of actively encouraging it, it's not a fact they want getting a lot of attention. A pirate copy of Windows is M$ second favorite OS. It means, obviously, that competing software is not used. It also means that if they can get their marketing arm, the BSA, in the door, they can probably shake the company down for everything, including servers and thus gain entrance to the server room. M$ used shakedowns against Netware in the 1990's and seems to be using it against Linux now.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.