Google's Copyright Crackdown Punishes Author For Torrenting His Own Book
from the too-aggressive dept
Over the years, we've pointed out repeatedly a massive Achilles Heel for Google: its often dreadful customer service. Trying to communicate with Google can often be like facing a giant white monolith, rather than any sort of human being. More recently, we've been concerned about Google's willingness to be overly aggressive in "enforcing" copyright, in an effort to keep Hollywood (and Hollywood's supporters in government) off its back. Combine those two issues, and you've got quite a story... such as the one from Techdirt reader Cody Jackson.A few years ago, Jackson, while deployed in Iraq, wrote a book about Python (the programming language) called Start Programming with Python. He decided to give away the book for free, as a "thank you" to the open source community which, he notes, has provided him with tremendous value over the years. He has always made the book available for free, and linked to various sources where you can get it. At the same time, he's offered people the option to support him via donation. He also made a little bit of money via Google AdSense ads on his site.
Last week, he was contacted by a Google bot, telling him that AdSense had been disabled. Why? Because they claimed he was distributing copyrighted content illegally. The email, which I've seen, notes that his account has been disabled for the following reason:
Violation explanationTo be honest, Google's terms here make no sense. Basically EVERY website "contains copyrighted material." Based on what Google sent to Jackson, no one could link to any website if they wanted to run AdSense. Google has a number of really good copyright lawyers, but they must have let this one slip by. I'm sure Google means "unauthorized" or "infringing" copyrighted material, but that's not what it says.
COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL: As stated in our program policies, AdSense publishers are not permitted to place Google ads on sites involved in the distribution of copyrighted materials. This includes hosting copyrighted files on your site, as well as providing links for or driving traffic to sites that contain copyrighted material. More information about this policy can be found in our help center ( http://www.google.com/adsense/support/as/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=105956 ).
Either way, it seems ridiculous and serious overkill to suggest that any links to a site that carries infringing content -- even if the link is to legitimate content -- should be deemed a terms of service violation. The email provides one link as an "example page" of the kind of problems they're talking about. That page is the one where Jackson announces that he's put up a torrent of the 2nd edition of his book, and points people to The Pirate Bay and Demonoid to get it. Remember, this is his own book, which he's published himself and is giving away for free... on purpose.
You could argue that Google's terms here are overbroad and perhaps they're within those rules. But saying that you can't link to legitimate content that you yourself released on the Pirate Bay could have a real chilling effect for those who choose to put their own works on such sites.
Jackson reached out to Google for more information, explaining to them the situation, pointing out that he's the author and publisher, and that the work is published under a Creative Commons BY-SA license, and thus all copies on The Pirate Bay are perfectly legal and authorized. Google told him it would review the account... and then sent the following:
Thank you for providing us with additional information about your site. However, after thoroughly reviewing python-ebook.blogspot.com and taking your feedback into consideration, we're unable to re-enable ad serving to your site at this time, as your site appears to still be in violation.Confused about this after reading through everything and still not seeing any violation, he removed the links to the torrent files, even though it made perfect sense to him to keep them up. As he noted to me via email: "The torrent was one of the first ways that I had made my book available, since that is where the technical people are likely to hang out. I figured a torrent file on the most popular torrent site was a no-brainer."
If you'd like to have your site reconsidered for participation in the AdSense program, please review our program policies (https://www.google.com/adsense/policies) and make any necessary changes to your webpages. For more information regarding your policy issue, please visit https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=113061.
So he, once again, responded to the Google bot, this time after removing the links... and he still got back the exact same message. The current post (and, again, this was a post that Google specifically called out as an "example" of a problem page) still mentions The Pirate Bay and Demonoid, but has no links (and even when it did have links, they were authorized!). And yet, Google's AdSense team still insists that he's violating AdSense's inscrutable terms. They won't explain why. They won't seem to actually comprehend what he's saying. They just block.
For what it's worth, we hear from Google haters all the time that it somehow refuses to take down Ads on "pirate sites." This experience seems to suggest the exact opposite: that Google is overly aggressive in trying to block ads showing up in any way, shape or form, near sites that it has deemed to be problematic, even if the content is 100% guaranteed legal and authorized. Combine that with Google's horrendous customer service-by-bot, and you have an unfortunate situation where an author is being punished for doing something perfectly legal and can't seem to find a human at Google who will actually take the time to understand what's going on.
These are the reasons why we get so nervous when Google cranks up its "automation" at the insistence of Hollywood. The collateral damage is very real.
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Filed Under: adsense, bots, cody jackson, copyright, crackdown, creative commons, customer service, ebook, python
Companies: google
Reader Comments
The First Word
“It's very obvious....
....that after 14 years and countless billions of dollars, Google has perfected a machine intelligence that cannot be destroyed by logical contradictions - the LawyerBot.Subscribe: RSS
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/sarcmarc
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Re: the all torrent is evil position
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After Google disabled ad serving, I responded and informed them that my members held the copyright to the work they were sharing and that I would not be removing anything whatsoever.
Ad serving was actually reinstated within 24 hours which was great, but the email I got back was frustrating - 'Thank you for making the requested changes to your site in order to comply with our policies'. Seriously? I didn't make any changes, would it hurt to admit they'd made a mistake? I also assume that my account remains 'flagged' as a previous violator, so I suspect if it happens again, that's the end of Adsense.
Anyway, I seem to have faired better than the guy in the story, but it does send a chill. I'm now very twitchy about my members sharing via file sharing services, even though they own the copyright to everything they share.
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"Restore the AdSense account please Google"
"I'm sorry Mr Claypole, I can't do that... Daisy, Daisy give me your answer do. I'm half crazy all for the love of you."
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It's very obvious....
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Anyway, I'm eager awaiting your proof of these claims.
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Re: Re:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120923/22351120487/googles-copyright-crackdown-punis hes-author-torrenting-his-own-book.shtml#c111
PROOF!
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He asked for proof that Mike is taking money from Google. Well, getting Google envelopes stuffed with cash, per the OP's words.
Which you DID NOT deliver on. Looks like your proof isn't even related to the comment at hand.
You fail, GREEDTARD!
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You obviously don't get it.
The only response they want for accusations without evidence is settlements. They have no intention to back it up with evidence, as courts are waking up to realize.
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Is it possible Amazon is the culprit...
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I hereby declare...
There, no problems with copyrighted material on my account.
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Re: I hereby declare...
"In order to protect TechDirt's adSense revenue, I hereby declare that everything I post here, in the past, present, and future, is public domain and I reserve no copyrights to anything I post here. You are free to do anything you want with anything I post here, reprint, mash it up, use it to enlighten yourself or bash me on the head with it, I don't care. Of course, I do not guarantee the merchantability of anything, and certainly won't be responsible for your use of my material (if it causes you to go blind or suffer mental or physical effects as a result of using it.)
There, no problems with copyrighted material on my account."
See what I did there? :)
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Re: Re: I hereby declare...
Woohoo!!!! Anonymous Coward opened up everything they've ever written to the public domain! :) Too bad we don't know which one.
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My guess is that it's because these are sites widely known for hosting links to infringing material. Sure he's directing people to his own material, but he is "driving traffic" to "pirate" sites. Even though no infringing content is actually hosted by these sites, from the MAFIAA's point of view, it's the exact same thing.
My suggestion is to just host the torrent file itself, and avoid mentioning TPB.
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Git with it!
That'll also bring more peeps attention to your github "profile" where some of your code & works are in a word, showcased. :) Ya never know, it might lead to greater things down the road. 'git 'er done.
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Happened to my own site
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Re: Happened to my own site
Google's business is the long-tail: fractions of fractions of a penny transactions spread over untold number of sites. equals billions of dollars every fiscal quarter.
Is Mike's thesis more grounded? Hard to say but to me it appears sounder.
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Re: Re: Happened to my own site
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Munts
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How about publishing as an Amazon's 99 cent books?
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Re: How about publishing as an Amazon's 99 cent books?
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Re: How about publishing as an Amazon's 99 cent books?
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Re: How about publishing as an Amazon's 99 cent books?
https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A29FL26OKE7R7B
As you mention though, it's not free... turns out he's doing it that way as well as via torrents anyway!
http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Program-Using-Python-ebook/dp/B0063ZM6I0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8& amp;qid=1348824704&sr=8-2&keywords=cody+jackson
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Re: How about publishing as an Amazon's 99 cent books?
That way, people who want to support me can buy the books or they can simply download a copy. If they really want to support me, they can buy multiple copies.
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Re: Re: How about publishing as an Amazon's 99 cent books?
only goes to show the unfortunate truth of 'no good deed goes unpunished'...
the point the author of the article made (was it mike ?) that it is nearly *impossible* to actually contact a humanoid at google is an issue that i find reprehensible...
there are FAR TOO MANY korporations who set up their systems to make it obvious they don't want their customers to contact them; WHAT does that say about them, their products/service, and our society ? ? ?
it says NO ONE gives a shit: "we overcharge you, we don't guarantee shit, we subject you to one-sided EULAs, now go the fuck away stupid customer"...
*THAT* is bidness in amerika...
art guerrilla
aka ann archy
eof
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Re: How about publishing as an Amazon's 99 cent books?
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Tell Matt Cutts
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Google does not allow ads on sites that promote torrents, plain and simple. When the guy started linking to a torrent, he pretty much lost his right to use Google ads.
Rather than screaming censorship, perhaps you would consider that the guy just did something silly, by putting a link to pirate infrastructure on his site. He shouldn't be surprised when companies don't to deal with him.
His free epech is not censored or curtailed. He is just having to make a business choice, no different from companies that choose not to advertise on Rush Limbaugh's program. Stop trying to hold Google to a higher standard.
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It's like having a legit business, say a bar, but you let a couple of guys sell crack out of the back and run underage hookers for cash. The problem is, once people catch on to that, they will assume that is all you do.
Torrents are pretty much the other way. Your in a crack den, with a bunch of pimps pushing underage girls, and you are trying to sell beer. Don't be shocked when people don't think you are legit.
"Are you saying that if every single torrent on TPB was not infringing that it would still be a pirate site?"
Since that isn't possible, why even ask? If there were no pirate torrents, it wouldn't be TPB... it would be "empty website" because nobody would go there.
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This author was lucky to get a reply, even luckier his blogspot blog hasn't been erased yet.
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Yeah, Similar problems
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Re: Yeah, Similar problems
Genuine question: have they stated that that is their policy? Because that would be news to me.
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Google Adsense Ads Backon Their Business
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Re: Google Adsense Ads Backon Their Business
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Unfortunately, many big companies seem to do that to a greater or lesser extent.
Probably Google needs to either...
- Hire a few hundred (maybe a few thousand) customer service people. This won't come cheap, because they will need to be reasonably smart. Otherwise there'll be no significant improvement over the bot.
- Hire a few dozen people and make the bot smart enough to guess (at least part of the time) when it's out of its depth, so it can refer those cases to a human.
- Make a *really* smart bot. (ETA: Not for a few decades, yet.)
- Live with a small percentage of disgruntled customers, like they have for years.
Which do you think is likely?
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I think that may become " - Live with a small but increasing percentage of disgruntled customers" which could become a serious problem.
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Google Ads are back on my site
Funny how a little media attention can change people's minds. Thank you for your support.
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Re: Google Ads are back on my site
It's proof that the internet has made our world very small again, because it seems to be a throw-back to an age where we lived in small communities and societal "shaming" was an effective tool to prompt good behavior.
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Great Book!
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That's great for him
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Only one thing gets a response from a real, live, breathing person at Google, eBay, PayPal, or any of these other companies that base their business model on computerized interaction with the consuming public, and the smallest number of human employees possible:
A summons.
A flurry of activity and letters from live lawyerly types starts when they get a letter about a lawsuit.
Just Google :) Paul Bezaire's story of the fun & games he had when he filed a small claims case against PayPal after months of being unable to reach a person and having nothing done about a fraud case.
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Facing a Similar Rejection with No Recourse
I could accept that bug in the logic, except there is no way to appeal to a human being at AdSense. Just like the OP, I have no way to restore my account, submit a support ticket, or talk to a real person. The only way to appeal is to submit your site to the bots again.
I've gone to their forums only to receive a response from the Google representatives that basically says, "Yeah, we see sites mis-flagged all the time. We don't have to partner with every site. Deal with it." That's not okay, especially if these bots are the same ones that are cataloging online information for most of the world.
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Re: Facing a Similar Rejection with No Recourse
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They treated me the same
I was just banned from the Adsense program for copyright infringement of my own work. I guess unless you post amateurish videos you are at risk for this kind of thing. I tried an appeal after removing some stuff that might look suspicious to their eyes (although perfectly legitimate) but I have not much hope of recovering my account. Not to mention that I never had and I'm not aware of any DCMA takedown notice.
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No one can mess up with them.
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Google is getting more and more intelligent
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