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BPI sends Google cease-and-desist order: 'Hey, stop indexing MP3s!'
The BPI -- Britain's equivalent of the American RIAA -- has sent a cease-and-desist order to Google, demanding that it removes links to one-click hosting sites with copyrighted MP3s from its search results.The DMCA notice (which you can read in full at Chilling Effects) cites 38 copyrighted works that are all easily found using simple Google searches. The cease-and-desist even lists the search phrases that return copyrighted results: usher omg (feat. will i.am download, glee cast i dreamed a dream free download, lady gaga alejandro megaupload -- and so on. The BPI asks Google to remove links to UserShare, MegaUpload, MediaFire, 4shared and others.
Whether Google will remove the links or not remains to be seen. Historically, it does usually remove links to copyrighted content when asked by the copyright owners -- but rather infamously, Google still indexes BitTorrent sites like isoHunt and The Pirate Bay. It's a grey area, that's for sure. Lee tackled it way back in 2009 and there's still been little or no progress made.
As The Guardian suggests, no one really knows whether Google falls under the same umbrella as Napster or Limewire. Does the Google search engine facilitate copyright infringement? The fabric of the Internet is held together by the idea that ISPs and search engines can't be held liable for the data they enable access to -- it's the very basis of free speech -- but I'm sure it's a subject that will continue to be contested in law courts for a long time to come.
Comments
10
Subscribe to commentsSonnyjimbaJun 22nd 2010 11:27AM
This is a bit like the Michelle Obama thing. (racist photo in google image results)
At the end of the day it isn't them who are hosting the content.
If they want to stop pirates, they need to go to the source of the problem, not try and stop search engines etc from listing it, they shouldn't try and blame google to try and stop some pirating, they should do something.
But that already has happened and has ended in the lovely D.E Bill, which funnily enough, just blames the ISP, who must do something about it or they get into trouble.
PhillipJun 22nd 2010 12:09PM
They filter out nazi stuff in Germany; if they do that i say that in the US they must also filter out material that is illegal.
stinlen56Jun 22nd 2010 1:04PM
You know, that's a valid point I hadn't heard before.
Sebastian AnthonyJun 22nd 2010 5:16PM
I guess the difference there is that a sovereign nation/Government is requesting that the content be blocked.
In this case it's a corporate overlord -- not quite the same _gravitas_.
FYIanJun 22nd 2010 8:04PM
What does what Germany is making Google do have to do with the United States? China makes Google do a lot of things, too, but that doesn't mean it would make sense for us to.
scottixJun 22nd 2010 12:43PM
Exactly it is just Metadata, they are not hosting the file. Shouldn't they go after the offending website?
DVent360Jun 22nd 2010 2:10PM
Sounds like a corporate/politician type of organization that has no knowledge of how the "intranets" work.
Seriously, if Google complies we might as well all just move to China.
GarrettJun 22nd 2010 5:53PM
I don't possibly see how this could backfire!
3tearJun 22nd 2010 7:14PM
I wonder if they'll go after archive.org next?
ScootahJun 27th 2010 11:00PM
I want google to comply, above and beyond. Redirect the primary search terms that would go to those results to a take down notification.
usher omg (feat. will i.am) - 0 results.
Google would like to take you to information about this artist, but the BPI, a representative group who represent the artist and their label in litigation against third party service providers has requested that we filter these searches. In the spirit of a neutral internet, we have disabled the most common searches that lead to material that BPI found contentious. We hope Usher doesn't see a sales drop now that he's invisible to our search engine.