Slashdot Mirror


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."

27 of 148 comments (clear)

  1. potential iffyness by MrDoh! · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.
    1. Re:potential iffyness by SJHillman · · Score: 5, Informative

      Google and Bing give wildly different results on many different topics, including topics that both companies are disinterested/uninterested parties. Not to say they aren't skewing the results of some hot topics, just that different results are to be expected for almost anything.

    2. Re:potential iffyness by dc29A · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Strange that MS doesn't remove from Bing the same links it asks Google to take out.

    3. Re:potential iffyness by sideslash · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I wouldn't expect Google to have the same interest in censoring Android app results on Bing, because the relatively few apps actually owned by Google are generally released for free anyway, whereas Microsoft has a ton of commercial software that many people consider desirable to rip off, like Windows, Office, MS Game Studios titles, etc.

      Recall that in general for Microsoft, software is something they create to sell to the public. For Google, software is something they give away free so that they can sell people's private browsing experiences to advertisers.

    4. Re:potential iffyness by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Pirate apk sites? Damn those rogue HOSTS files!

    5. Re:potential iffyness by Grayhand · · Score: 5, Funny

      Strange that MS doesn't remove from Bing the same links it asks Google to take out.

      What are you implying? Next thing you'll claim Fox News only attacks liberals? You'd think everyone had an agenda.

    6. Re:potential iffyness by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 4, Insightful

      infringement obviously needs to be taken down quickly

      Obviously for you, maybe. Copyright infringement is supposed to be decided by courts, which is not an 11 hour process.

      --
      Palm trees and 8
    7. Re:potential iffyness by Exitar · · Score: 5, Informative

      The goal is to make Bing the search engine most used by people looking for copyrighted content, since they could not find it on Google anymore.

      Google should simply submit the same take down notice to Microsoft if the "illegal" link is found on Bing too.

    8. Re:potential iffyness by cpu6502 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The simple answer is that Microsoft has more copyrighted things out in the wild..... Windows of course, but also their various office products, and also games for the Xbox. - Google has less to protect and less infringement to deal with.

      I would have thought the top requester would be the government itself. They are #2 on youtube, demanding that videos be taken down.

      --
      My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
  2. That's a shock by Grayhand · · Score: 3, Funny

    Who knew they were so protective of Bob and Clippy?

    1. Re:That's a shock by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Clippy: "It looks like you're writing a DMCA take-down notice..."

    2. Re:That's a shock by Sarten-X · · Score: 5, Funny

      Microsoft: Evil by design

      Facebook: Evil by proxy

      Google: Evil by accident

      Apple: Evil by tyranny

      --
      You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
  3. Broken. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  4. The lawsuit itself became a business case by captainpanic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:The lawsuit itself became a business case by tqk · · Score: 3, Interesting

      As the article says, there are now dedicated companies who chase copyright issues.

      Yes, and doesn't that strike you as just plain sick?

      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?

      I did not RTFA, but I did read this, which seemed a good overall review of the features. It looks like a very nice thing for Google to put out.

      That said, I'll stick with Ixquick, thanks.

      --
      "Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit ..." -- Pink Floyd.
  5. DDOS by any other name by SgtChaireBourne · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.
    1. Re:DDOS by any other name by atlasdropperofworlds · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It could be more insidious than that. By flooding Google with requests, Google will automate the process. In fact, I bet they already have. This means less human oversight, and a greater chance that anything can be censored.

    2. Re:DDOS by any other name by geniice · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Google isn't going to do anything that would risk its safe harbour statements. At the same time sending these requests already costs Microsoft money

  6. All of file sharing domains now in one place! by ciantic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  7. Welcome to free speech... by jez9999 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... US-style.

  8. Re:How many false positives? by biodata · · Score: 4, Informative

    Never mind found it in the FAQ: they removed 97% of search results specified in requests received between July and December 2011. The cases they talk about declining to remove are a laugh.

    --
    Korma: Good
  9. 250,000 fingers in the dike a week by crazyjj · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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?
  10. Re:How many false positives? by SuricouRaven · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Under the DMCA, more-or-less. For a service provider to decline a DMCA notice means they can be potentially liable, so unless the content in question is of particually high value of the customer pays very well they have little incentive to even give the contents of the notice a glance. Take it down first, ask questions later.

  11. non US search engines by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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?

  12. Wouldn't it be simpler.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    ..to just not index any page containing the term Microsoft? Just add it to the stopword list already.

  13. Re:Numbers are BS by Geeky · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That's 11 elapsed hours, not 11 hours to do the work. They have a backlog. Each one might only take five minutes to process, but they'll get to it, on average, 11 hours after it's reported.

    --
    Sigs are so 1990s. No way would I be seen dead with one.
  14. Where will I then get a Windows ISO by thue · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.