In my previous blog posts, I have mentioned various methods adopted by online search engines to reduce piracy. For example, Google have removed websites which promote piracy from their “autocomplete” and “instant” feature (you can find that blog post here).
In hindsight, this move probably should not have been much of a surprise. Google and other Search Engines seem to get a decent chunk of the blame for spreading piracy from the public. However, a recent research paper by Matt Schruers and published by the Computer and Communications Industry Association apparently indicates that search engines actually have little to do with promoting piracy.
Before I start: Total disclaimer I have not read the article and have only made my opinions based on what I’ve read on other blogs and articles (I’ve tried looking for a legal copy online but could not find one).
The paper presents many interesting pieces of data. For example, only eight percent of the monthly traffic in one of the largest piracy websites on the internet actually comes from Google. That’s still a decent amount, but in the grand scheme of things it is practically nothing.
That being said, when I was reading different articles on the paper I came across a very interesting point from Dan Mitchell (his article can be found here). He rightly pointed out that data like the above may be painting the wrong picture, when a person discovers a website which supports pirated material he is unlikely to go through a search engine to find it again.
The paper apparently also dwells into other different areas to do with piracy, like the effect of online streaming services such as Spotify and Netflix and their effect on the reduction of online piracy of music and movies respectfully.
I’ll post another blog post when and if I find a (legal) way to read the paper online.
Sources:
New Research Says Search Engines Have Little To Do With Promoting Pirated Content
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2013/08/06/report-google-sends-little-traffic-to-pirate-sites/
