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Google's View On the Whac-a-Mole of Blocking Pirate Sites

Posted by Unknown on from the missing-the-point dept.

jones_supa writes "During a debate in London last night, the game of whac-a-mole related to blocking pirate sites was discussed by artists, labels, the BPI, and Google. Most interestingly, Google's Theo Bertram brought to the table the idea of going after the sites as a business, which in practice would mean strangling their (often voluminous) advertising budget. A test performed by musician David Lowery confirmed that a search for Carly Rae Jepsen's 'Call Me Maybe' conjured up a list of unlicensed sites, some of which have an advertising relationship with Google. Geoff Taylor of the BPI said that Google has the both the information and technological ability to directly stomp infringing sites, but at the same time noted that somewhat oddly iTunes has not arranged itself a prominent position in the results to promote legally-purchased music, which can't be completely Google's fault."

4 of 182 comments (clear)

  1. Search engines by Endimiao · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Google should thread lightly on this path. Too much censorship and suddenly some less restrictive search engine could make it go the way of Yahoo..

    1. Re:Search engines by king+neckbeard · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Once the mechanism for blocking is in place, it will be used for other purposes. It will also be used for gray or edge cases as a means of further stomping out innovators that would compete with the status quo. Frankly, the threat to free speech and stifling of technology is orders of magnitude more important, even from a purely financial perspective.

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  2. Really? by Maximum+Prophet · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Geoff Taylor of the BPI said that Google has the both the information and technological ability to directly stomp infringing sites...

    Everything is possible if someone else has to do it and pay for it.

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  3. Re:iTunes by John+Napkintosh · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sure, downloads happen through iTunes, but it would still behoove Apple to point searches for songs to iTunes in some way, even if through some intermediary that launches iTunes to actually make the download.

    Which is probably why Google were surprised that Apple is not already doing so. Not that that has anything at all to do with copyright infringement.

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