This past week Google received its 100 millionth piracy notice, and according to some, their efforts have yielded less than satisfactory results. Frances Moore, the CEO of the International Foundation of the Phonographic Industry, went on a bit of a tirade this past week, accusing Google of ignoring piracy requests. Moore says that Google, as the largest search engine in the world has a duty to help fight piracy.
Does Google have a duty? I think the answer is yes, but the real question is how far that duty extends. Google already has a mechanic which allows content holders to send a notice to Google, but clearly that isn’t getting the job done. Google aren’t taking down complete websites or domains from their search engines, just taking down individual links that originate from that domain name. Furthermore, even if they did block an entire website, the website can just change the whole domain.
The record industry “suggests” that Google take a much harsher approach by blacklisting entire websites. At first I dismissed the idea as completely unachievable, but then I remembered Google did take a similar approach when they took it upon themselves to block websites with sensitive images of children. But then again, I would guess that those websites arn’t even close in numbers to the amount of websites which allow people to download music illegally.
It should be mentioned that blacklisting isn’t the only thing the record industry is suggesting. They have a couple of very interesting ideas (which can be found here) that I think Google can implement, such as the idea of having a little verified link next to legitimate sources of downloading music.
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