Google Misreads Complaint From MLB, Blocks Wrong Site
from the the-new-new-google? dept
Well, this is unfortunate. Google’s been getting more and more pressure from the US government to censor websites based on accusations (not convictions) of copyright infringement, and it appears that Google is caving more and more to such requests, rather than standing up for user rights and the basics of how copyright works. It did that bizarre and really poorly thought out blocking of certain autocomplete words. Then there was the absolutely awful copyright school that perpetuated certain copyright myths and made “fair use” sound like the negative side effects you might get when you take some prescription medicine. On top of that it got a lot of attention for deleting Grooveshark’s app from the Android Marketplace, but further research shows that it’s been dumping a bunch of music apps.
The latest, though, is particularly egregious. Apparently, it entirely removed Rojadirecta.es from its directory based on a DMCA complaint from Major League Baseball, but it appears to have completely misread the complaint.
First of all, you may recognize the name Rojadirecta. It’s the site that was found to be totally legal (twice) in Spain, but still had its .com domain seized by Homeland Security. It already had the .es domain and now that’s become it’s main site. Now, you could potentially see someone issuing a DMCA takedown over that site, but the notice in question was not actually a DMCA takedown notice at all, but a notice of a violation of AdSense. If that’s the case, then you could see it lead to a cancellation of that AdSense program, but not a block from the index.
Making matters even worse, MLB’s complaint is wrong. The AdSense in question was not even on Rojadirecta’s site. Rojadirecta is a linking site, and the complaint was actually about ads on a site Rojadirecta linked to. And yet, because of this Google blocked the Rojadirecta site. At a time when governments around the globe are also getting upset with Google for what they deem to be arbitrary listing decisions (and yes, I agree that this political argument is silly), you would think that Google would be more careful than to completely dump a site based on a questionable AdSense policy violation claim.
Filed Under: adsense, copyright, takedown
Companies: google, rojadirecta
Comments on “Google Misreads Complaint From MLB, Blocks Wrong Site”
Oh well. Looks like someone not only dropped the idiot ball, but then went on to play a game of Idiocracy.
Nice going, Goog.
“better safe than sorry” is a policy that has ruined more than one thing in the past. Google adopting it is not a good development.
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Well, they don’t really have much choice, considering that Congress and the legislatures in other countries keep on telling them “PLAY IT SAFE OR YOU WILL BE SORRY!”
I cannot really blame them for doing things like this, though I am disappointed when they do them.
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The issue is they just had the entire entertainment industry in meetings in Congress where it devolved into why can’t Google fix everything.
Google weighed in on the ISOHunt case, not to protect search engines, but to make sure the ruling was so narrow they could dodge getting ensnared.
Google sells AdSense and some less than “reputable” websites make a few bucks, and you have the corps complaining to the media how Google is paying pirates!
Google still has that spiffy “investigation” into if the WiFi gathering was “hacking”. They are trying to save their own asses.
Google does not have that many friends – Music Lockers, Fiber to the home, YouTube. RIAA, ISPS, MPAA… those are some powerful players, who have paid enough to their pocket Congress critters to try and get laws to outlaw Google.
Rather than trying to make a stand, they are buckling in “small” areas as they try to get their PR machine up and running and get their own set of Congress critter trading cards to use against the other kids.
In the mean time the public looses as innovation slows down, and has the undue burdens of but thats not how we did it 50 years ago we can’t do it that way!
Google makes decisions that look like missteps, but put yourself in Googles shoes. Your facing multiple “investigations” “meetings” “hearings”… if you do something this dumb you avoid 1 more player at the table calling for your blood. If your still holding onto “Don’t be evil” as a mantra, I hate to break it to you – The Easter Bunny isn’t real either.
I think what they did was stupid, honoring a completely invalid request creates something the next moron can point to to get their way. But I can understand why they did it trying to protect themselves. As the overused line goes – Don’t hate the player, hate the game.
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Google does not have that many friends – Music Lockers, Fiber to the home, YouTube….
Although, I agree with the majority of your comment – I would like to point out that YouTube is probably a friend of Google since Google owns them.
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My poorly made point was they are working on music lockers, fiber to the home, youtube which in turn created the enemies in the RIAA, ISPS, MPAA.
TD: where all attempts at stopping piracy are bad.
It’s almost as if this blog owner’s business and flaky theories are based on piracy continuing like it did last decade…
oh wait, they are.
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If you’re not part of the solution, you are the problem – amirite?
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And knowing is half the battle.
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…GI JOE
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Not exactly… If you’re not part of the solution, there’s money to be made in prolonging the problem…. OR more realisticly:
Even if you are the solution, there’s money to be made in prolonging the problem. (quote is from a demotivational poster about consultants if I remember correctly, but applies to many industries)
Which is one of the biggest problems with the world today, there is no long term gain/profit/incentive to actually solve problems, only to provide short term ‘remedies’ or ‘treatments’ that make things seem better for a short time at a high cost, until the next remedy can be created and marketed.
Re: Copyright Trolls ...
… where all attempts to point out the mistakes of the copyright maximalists are bad.
It?s almost as if some readers? business and flaky theories are based on copyright continuing like it did last century …
oh wait, they are.
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The only flakes I see are 99s. I think they belong to you.
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Your comment: Where all attempts at telling the truth fail… miserably.
It’s almost as if this commenter’s life and flaky theories are based on continually bashing TD, just like you’ve done the past few years…
oh wait, they are.
oops
Step 1: Find a site hosting copyrighted material you can reasonably claim to own.
Step 2: Find links to that material on Bing and Yahoo results.
Step 3: Post links to those links on some free blog somewhere so that they’ll show up in the Google index.
Step 4: Use Google to find the Yahoo and Bing links, then send DMCA takedown.
Step 5: Some shortsighted Google lawyer blocks Yahoo and Bing.
Step 6: Profit?
This hurts google too.
Blocking things from their index just makes their index less valuable.
Would Someone Please Get Mike Masnick A Tissue?
Mike, How long did you think your little copyleft wet-dream was going to last?
Game Over
-Silicon Valley Is Gonna Burn-
The running Google have had success go to their heads and started to believe the computer-illiterates’ misconception that web search = Google. This was probably inevitable.
In the next 5-10 years, Google will become known as the “politically correct web search,” while people who actually want impartial results will use Something Entirely Different.
Dropped Adsense over copyright infringements
I used Adsense on my book publishing site for six years and advised other publishers to try it as well. But after spending the last month fighting duplicate content problems, I’ve concluded that Adsense is resposible for both of them and pulled out. Just posted on my blog:
Adsense and Blogger: A Business Model for Infringement
Morris Rosenthal
Foner Books