RIAA Whines To Congress That It Doesn't Like Google's Search Results
from the also,-it-doesn't-play-nice-in-the-sandbox dept
We already noted that the first "punch" of the legacy entertainment industry's new attacks on Google was a silly and self-contradictory study from the MPAA blaming Google for leading susceptible people straight to infringing content. Of course, the details of the study didn't really support the inferences the MPAA is throwing out there, but, you know, that's the MPAA. The second "punch" also is pretty weak, and comes in the form of RIAA boss Cary Sherman testifying before the House Judiciary Committee's IP subcommittee. The hearing is supposed to be about "voluntary agreements," and much of Sherman's piece talks up various "voluntary" (and I use the term loosely, since nearly all were "coordinated" by the White House, and many came with the implied threat of legislation if an agreement wasn't made) agreements like the "six strikes" agreement, which studies have shown is unlikely to help the legacy entertainment industry players.But then he turns to the "what's missing?" section, and front and center is... Google.
If ISPs can be considered the gateway by users to rogue sites online, search engines may be considered the roadmaps or, more directly, the turn-by-turn directions and door-to-door service to these sites. There can be no doubt that search engines play a considerable role in leading users to illicit services and can be a key part of addressing infringing activity online.Actually, there can be tremendous doubt. Because as we've shown (and the MPAA's own study confirms), search engines are very rarely used to find infringing materials. Furthermore, there has yet to be any evidence that search engine blocking actually helps "address infringing activity online." In fact, as with the MPAA report, the RIAA first claims that changing search results can help, but on the very next page admits that Google did change its search results, and it didn't help. The RIAA, of course, relies on its own "report card" for Google, which has already been shown to be laughably flawed.
The problem is a basic one. The RIAA and MPAA would like sites they like to be listed higher in Google's search. Most companies that want that learn how to optimize their sites for search. It's called Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Only the legacy entertainment industry would think that, rather than doing what every other website does, they get to go to Google (and Congress) and demand that Google change its algorithm to pump up their preferred sites.
The RIAA also has an astoundingly dangerous idea for how to "fix" Google:
We believe it would be useful to see voluntary initiatives by search engines that take into account whether or not a site is authorized to provide the content at issue in determining search result rankings for searches to consume that content. This could take into account not only the absolute number of copyright removal requests sent about a site to trigger demotion of that site, but also whether the site is authorized to provide the content to trigger a higher search rank for that site.This idea clearly comes from people who don't even have the slightest clue how search works, or what the unintended consequences of such a change would be. Let's take a basic example. If I do a basic search on the title of a movie, it doesn't necessarily mean I want to watch the movie online right away (either via authorized or unauthorized means). I might just want to know who acted in it, when it was released or whether it had good reviews. But, under the RIAA's proposed "solution," Google should demote all the perfectly legitimate websites that provide that kind of information, and instead push sites that have licensed the movies to the top. That's not going to help. It's going to piss off information seekers.
Furthermore, this doesn't take into account how things change, and how sites/technologies that are initially attacked by the industry later turn out to be important. We've talked plenty of times about the MPAA's well covered attacks on the "Boston strangler to the movie industry" that was the VCR. Of course, it was just four years after Jack Valenti made those comments that Hollywood was making more money from home video than from the box office. So, along comes the next VCR... and the RIAA and MPAA get to whine about how it's "not authorized" and pushes down the search results. Suddenly this tool that could be a tremendous boon to the industry can't get the attention necessary to grow and succeed. It's not far fetched. Viacom is still suing YouTube, even as basically the entire legacy entertainment industry relies on YouTube as a tremendous marketing and distribution tool. Imagine if the RIAA's plan was in place in YouTube's early days?
Google has announced that it intends to develop and deploy technology to eradicate links to child pornography images from the web. Certainly similar technology can be used to remove links to other illegal content.The legacy players have trotted out this line for years, and it's no less ridiculous than it's been every time in the past. There is no "fair use" for child porn. There is fair use for copyright-covered content, and the ability to build up tools (like YouTube) that take advantage of fair use is shown to have a tremendous impact on creating useful and innovative new tools and services for the industry and the public alike. The RIAA's belief that Google can magically stamp out infringement shows a fundamental misunderstanding about how copyright works -- or (more likely) a general condescending attitude towards fair use.
Also, Google has tools in its Chrome browser to warn users if they are going to sites that may be malicious. Shouldn’t that technology be used to warn users of rogue sites?Except there's a major difference. People don't want to go to malicious sites. Google is doing its users a favor there. When users want to go to access unauthorized content, putting up a warning page goes against their wishes and pisses off users. I recognize that the RIAA has spent decades believing that pissing off users is a viable strategy, but that might also be why they've shrunk so much, while companies that respect their users have grown.
Or better yet, can Google use similar technology to highlight or identify sites that are authorized? Imagine if links to content on legitimate sites were labeled – directly in the search result –with a certification mark indicating that the site is licensed and actually pays royalties to creators. That educational message could have a profound and positive impact on user behavior.Again, not the problems above concerning perfectly legitimate search results that are not about getting access to the actual content. They would get punished under such a system. Furthermore, this assumes that the problem is "education." That people just don't know where to go to get authorized content. There's little indicating this is true.
Finally, beyond the issue of annoying clutter on Google's interface at the behest of a single industry, you have to wonder where heading down that path lies. If the record labels and movie studios get it, what about luxury brands? I'm sure Louis Vuitton would love to be able to get a special mark on search results it likes. Or, how about the Associated Press? Perhaps it wants a special mark on news publications it "approves." Suddenly lots of other legitimate sites are left out in the cold.
Either way, we've been running around seeing the RIAA and MPAA do the same damn thing for a decade and a half now. It's always about blaming others for their own failures to give consumers what they want. Yet, when they finally do give consumers what they want, infringement tends to go down. Magic. Perhaps instead of continually looking around at who else they can blame for their own failings, they should spend a bit more time trying to innovate.
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Filed Under: cary sherman, judiciary committee, search engines, search results, secondary liability
Companies: google, riaa
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That would only work if the only people able to put this mark on their site were legit royalty payers.
It would be trivially easy in such a situation for someone to forge the mark, lead users to illegitimate content. What will the MAFIAA say then? The users should have magically distrusted the very mark that they have pushed?
Or do they mean something along along the lines of the padlock symbol for HTTPS? Well, with the recent NSA leaks, that's been to be more or less untrustworthy. I can't recall the last time the MAFIAA industry ever developed a computer technology that was actually secure and trustworthy. All I can remember is about three decades worth of DRM that has failed every single time to prevent unauthorized copying.
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But regardless, the MPAA could do this without Google's help by using browser plugins.
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Re: Certification mark
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3514.txt
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The main problems are:
A whitelist has to be updated and frequently.
What do you need to enter that list? How transparent is the intended process? If RIAA members procedures are anything to go by, I would say it spells monopoly abuse almost before these questions are answered!
Regardless, it is an artificial monopoly gatekeeper position that weakens competition depending on update speed and demands.
It is also extinction scale disruptive to untested business models unless they hand over some of their startup funding to get on the list...
Such a list would also just be begging to be abused in some unintended way, but I do not see how that is RIAAs problem since they are the ones standing to get all the benefits and none of the responsibilities!
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I can't remember the last time I downloaded any unauthorized content, but this would be a GREAT idea; then I would know to avoid all the certified sites as too expensive.
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Bad choice of wording on their part, as if that's what it takes to get the 'certification of approval', then the *AA's are going to be out of luck, given their aversion to actually paying the artists.
I agree though, such a 'seal' would be quite handy in helping those of us that do our best to never send them a cent to avoid them, allowing us to instead throw our money at actual creators, and those people/companies who don't hold their customers in such contempt.
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I went to play the first song, titled "Free", and the song won't play. So I tried the second song, and it had embedded malware which pointed the first file, but shockingly, it started playing.
Unfortunately, this isn't good news. The song just screams "Can't! Can't! Can't!" over and over, and now I can't stop the song, thanks to the malware.
I'd throw out my MP3 player, but I stole it from Walmart.
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I just did a Google search for 'Game of Thrones' which we all know is the most pirated TV show.
The results I got were the official website, Wikipedia and IMDB pages, Sky Atlantic website, Twitter page and some blogs writing about the show. There were no infringing websites in sight.
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I think the RIAA/MPAA are trying to get Congress to pass some completely bogus laws as a threat to Google and tech companies in general.
"You don't wanna play ball? We'll just go get Congress to pass some more laws! Now pay up!"
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And if Google concedes to this or is forced to concede to this, not only will be it be a big anti-free market and anti-net neutrality move, it will also just lead people to foreign owned search engines that can't be bullied into this kind of favoritism.
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Just one of the many ways the **AAs try to misdirect those not technically clued up enough to notice the lies themselves.
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The child porn analogy
I guess it might not be a bad thing if we allowed Google to assume that all Miley Cyrus videos were illegal...
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Re: The child porn analogy
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And then the users would just disable that "technology". The antimalware on Chrome and Firefox can be disabled.
Then they will ask Google to remove the option to disable it. That might be possible for Chrome, but then the users would just migrate to Firefox or Chromium. Removing the option to disable it on these browsers would just mean people would compile them from the source code, after ripping out the code which does the antimalware checking.
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RIAA missing so many opportunities...
Here's my interpretation of the RIAA's claim:
RIAA: "There's a whorehouse on somewhere Google Ave. Well there might be. OK, there's that one lady who dresses funny sometimes. Anyway, we're going to need the entire street dug up, and put up signs directing people looking for a whorehouse to my 'House of Lotion' instead."
Genius. And I just love how they compare their content to child porn.
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Search TPB
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Dear MPAA/RIAA...
The user would search through the results til they found the link for the pirate bay, then they would bookmark it or remember the page it showed up in the results.
Net effect on piracy? 0
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Do you look at a roadmap to get to your house, Mike?
Biggest lie in least words: "a few pirates"!
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Re: Do you look at a roadmap to get to your house, Mike?
Yeah, because in your deluded little world, Google is the only means of finding anything online and word-of-mouth or news reports that mention the name The Pirate Bay or Bing or Yahoo! or Usenet or MIRC or Twitter or RSS feeds or smoke signals or telegrams or cave drawings are all completely incapable of being the medium of communication through which someone can find out about a website.
For being so anti-Google, you seem to think they're the only search engine or communication medium on the internet.
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No, Mike, it's about people taking what doesn't belong to them:
Where arrogance meets ignorance to conspire what they'll do with someone else's $100 million movie.
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Re: No, Mike, it's about people taking what doesn't belong to them:
Assigning the responsibility of enforcing the law to Google is a bad move. They aren't cops.
This trend of forcing others to carry the burden of companies who want to deny reality is flushing all our efficiency down the crapper. We are going to get demolished by anyone who doesn't set up restrictions on progress every time Mickey Mouse snaps his fingers. Start moving back towards reality or inevitably crumble.
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Re: Re: No, Mike, it's about people taking what doesn't belong to them:
If Mike supports copyright, why are the pirates here? They take him same as I do: PRO-PIRACY!
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x User searches for deer, shown where to buy the movie Bambi.
x User searches for law, redirected to Prenda Law
x User searches for NSA wiretap, sent to http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130917/17490324560/same-day-its-revealed-verizon-has-never-challe nged-nsa-it-mocks-internet-companies-doing-so.shtmlVerizon PR page
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It appears to me what the real hidden push here is to be able to get free advertising and search engine placement by demanding congress do something rather than do it themselves. It costs money and they are doing their best to hide wanting to free load. Sounds like the pot calling the kettle don't it.
Lots of sites use this new fangled thing called robot.txt. Bet that works out real well on finding such on Google. /s
It would be amazing to me if they ever figure out there is more than one search engine in the world. If they were to actually get all the english language serving engines under their wing, any one with half a brain can figure out where to go to get results in a foreign country. Google might come in handy here for it's language translation. But Google would not be serving the search results.
I can tell you now, I already don't use Google and haven't for years. I simply hate advertising and datamining. While I may not be able to stop it all, I can sure put a serious dent in it by what I allow or don't. Google is one of those I don't allow the use of because of the heavy ads.
So yeah, this is really gonna help a lot. Just like putting a bandaid on someone that fell out of a plane is going to help.
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I didn't find Techdirt via Google...I didn't know it exsited or how to find such an awesome site. I found Techdirt via word of mouth...
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Already done: -site:amazon.com
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"When users want to go to access unauthorized content," they've turned criminal!
Mike really gets his rant on when Google might be forced to make its computers do a bit of policing that's clearly in the interest of all honest people who'll pay for content, AND when he can attack MPAA and RIAA. It's difficult to believe he "supports copyright" when in EVERY case he's dead against any actual enforcement mechanisms, only blathers about how stealing is entirely the fault of content producers.
Mike Masnick on Techdirt: "a bogus, laughable group that is spreading ideas that would do massive harm to the internet based on a near total ignorance of how things work."
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Re: "When users want to go to access unauthorized content," they've turned criminal!
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Fixed your sig, boyo.
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Suspicious code can be detected by an algorithm. There is no way for code to decide whether a title on a file refers to content that is being offered without authorisation of the copyright holder, or even ho the copyright holder is. The RIAA agents cannot reliably identify RIAA members material.
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Like the Anti-virus plugins?
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Sounding more like the French every day
Like I've said before: sorry you suck at the internet MPAA/ RIAA. Get over it, deliver useful services and stop relying on regulatory capture to effectively tax law abiding citizens.
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ISPs: you are their next target. Buckle up, because these RIAA thugs have no belief in collateral damage.
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Do it the easy way
"You searched for Iron Man 3. According to the MPAA our search results may direct you to infringing sites, and have requested we censor and alter our search results. We have opted to censor ALL the results for your search. We apologise for any inconvenience caused."
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Best thing to do is to never buy a thing from them and Educate your friends and fans.
Buy & Support Non-MAFIAA ART ! Buy Local Art ! Screw the MAFIAA and double screw their sold-out Artists.
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Good Advice
MPAA Movies in theaters only, RIAA music in live concerts only.
Stop trying to make the rest of us suffer for your inability to deal with new technology.
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It is going to become obvious to them at some point that the way they stop perpetual MPAA crying and tantrum-throwing about needing draconian anti-piracy laws, is to purchase one or more of the major movie studios. Once they own the studio, any executive who starts throwing tantrums about piracy is immediately fired.
And who knows? This may already be obvious to them.
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Don't like Google's search results?
It's called AdWords. You want your stuff to show up above the results people are actually searching for? You can damn well pay, like everyone else does. You guys have enough money to bribe legislators, so you clearly have enough to pay Google to show your choice of ad whenever someone searches for the names of your imaginary properties, or even The Pirate Bay since legal precedent is piling up in favor of buying your competitors' trademarks as ad keywords.
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RIAA are idiots.
Defenders of these guys are idiots.
They're all fucking idiots.
Innovate. Hrmph. You'll have better luck getting telecom to respect the tenets of the country that made them and protects them every step of the way. And that's a big fat fucking chance. Innovate. They can't do anything but bitch, ever. RIAA - where opportunity is as black as night.
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