For a better part of two years, Google has been doing its part to reduce piracy by filtering piracy related terms from its popular “autocomplete” and “instant” features. For those not in the know, Autocomplete and Instant are features on Google’s website which guesses what the consumers are searching for while they are in the middle of typing. “Autocomplete” displays terms which are related to what you are typing, whilst the “instant” feature displays searches which are related to what you are typing. These features are switched on by default, and it is very likely that if you use Google that you have come across it.
With Google being the biggest English search engine on the internet, if a website were to be blacklisted this could have an effect on their popularity. In theory this sounds well and good, but if you consider the fact that Google has full discretion on what it considers “piracy related” to be and that there is no immediate way of appeal, this becomes slightly more worrying. Google is essentially put into the position of being judge, jury and executioner. There has already been some controversy with the matter, in fact just earlier this week Google placed the popular music streaming/social networking site Grooveshark on their blacklist without any real warning. Furthermore, this is coming on the heels of Google, as well as other search engines, entering into a best practice agreement with the US Government whereby they will remove their advertising feature (Google Adsense) from piracy related websites.
Giving Google so much power is unnerving, I appreciate that them doing anything out of malice is unlikely because for the sake of their reputation, but they are still capable of making mistakes. Needless to say that because of their size, one mistake can cause a person or a company a significant amount of revenue. I think it may be time to have some sort of regulation in place by the Government to assure that there is a fair and simple appeal system.
Sources:
http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2013/20130725groovesharkgoogle
