Rich Fiscus
12 Jul 2007 5:32
A recent article on the website of the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) attacks Google for a lack of filtering to remove copyrighted material from YouTube and Google Video.
The article argues that Google avoids filtering this content because of the revenue generated by those websites, and also compares the situation to the large scale production of pirated DVDs in China, but gives no evidence to support the contention that the two are equivalent financially.
It goes on to make an argument that "many other Internet operations such as MySpace, TorrentSpy, DailyMotion and Break.com have set up filtering systems to Block copyrighted material. Google is a $158 Billion company with arguably the most advanced search technology in the world. The argument that they cannot block pirated content because of technological or financial reasons is laughable."
Included in the report is a list of 50 videos that they were able to find links to on Google Video and YouTube. They say they're specifically targeting Google Video because it's generally ignored in favor of YouTube when this issue is discussed.
It also states that "Our goal is to do our best to expose the pirating of copyrighted material by finding and posting as many apparently pirated works as possible. For starters, we are focusing on Google Video because it hosts many full-length movies and concerts and because it has received less attention than YouTube, also owned by Google." While this is a commendable goal, I have to question whether comparing those who violate copyright in this way to Chinese organized crime figures is a step in the right direction.
Source: National Legal and Policy Center