How The DMCA Affects Search Engines 147
An anonymous reader writes "Here is an interesting article regarding the application of the DMCA safe harbor provisions to search engines. This is what causes Google to remove links from its search results and to put a disclaimer at the bottom of the page stating "In response to a complaint we received under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we have removed [x] result(s) from this page." The article is published in the Virginia Journal of Law and Technology, and there is a direct link to a pdf version of the article."
Sort of like... (Score:5, Insightful)
Next thing you know... (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm turning in my two-week notice tomorrow. How about you?
I disbelieve this horse-patooey.
Crap Like This (Score:5, Insightful)
It's crap like this that absolutely works to destroy the usefulness and wonder of the Internet.
Re:what i love though... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:AS USUAL... (Score:5, Insightful)
File sharing programs are by no means illegal, sharing files isn't illegal either, just some files whose "owners" don't want anyone to have without giving them money and eff will debate that
Thumb on the scale of justice... (Score:5, Insightful)
No wonder most companies, when confronted with a DMCA Takedown letter choose the path of least resistance.
Remember Kazaalite and Scientology? (Score:4, Insightful)
While some here cheer that Google put a reference to the the Kazaa Lite pages removed (or rather to the DMCA notice which includes the URLs of those pages), effecly nullyfing the effect, it is worrying me instead.
Fact is that Companies and Organisations can force the removal of Links from Search Engines, and if those Engines don't act as smartly as Google here (be it due to fear of lawsuits from those Organistions or due to simple lazyness) we might not even notice it....
Re:Backwards? (Score:5, Insightful)
It would be just as silly if people in the US couldn't do searches on certain words because my country thinks it's not OK for the search engine to provide such results.
If they want filterning then they should run such filters on google.com only. I can't see how the DMCA should apply to google.it or google.com.ar or any other such domain.
Diego Rey
The short version (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:DMCA Counter-Takedown letters... (Score:2, Insightful)
The legal ground is contributory infringment. They know they are profiting from copyright infringment, that that is the basis of almost all their userbase and therefore their profits. When a manufacturer makes a product that is explicitly designed to be used to commit a crime, they are responsible for that crime.
Re:Crap Like This (Score:2, Insightful)
Yeah, but it sure does make the control freaks in power cream their pants.
But not to worry - it also absolutely works to accelerate the evolution of untouchable p2p search vs. centralized cluster search. A hard problem, sure, but more attractive by the day. (the control freaks could also attempt to kill this free communication by requiring "trusted routers" not to route "untrusted" packets; only way to counter that is wireless mesh networking.)
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Re:Law out of control! (Score:4, Insightful)
The sad fact is that the parasite-to-"honest"-host ratio is almost the same in society as it is nature: pretty damn high.
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Re:Yeah right, (Score:4, Insightful)
The irony... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:DMCA Counter-Takedown letters... (Score:3, Insightful)
Pre-rolled ciggarettes make me feel sick and the rolling tobacco I buy is a fraction of the cost of even the cheapest pre-rolled ciggarettes that I can buy here.
I think your analogy would be more accurate if rolling paper had drug dealers phone numbers printed on them.
Just thought I'd point that out.
Re:Yeah right, (Score:5, Insightful)
And since we can vote, we can work to get rid of it.''
Attacking this point specifically:
Yes you can vote, but you may not be able to get rid of the DMCA. To do that would require there being a party that would abolish the DMCA, and that party getting elected (or at least powerful enough to abolish the DMCA). Since politics is about much more than the DMCA alone, such a party would likely have other things in its programme that you don't like. And that others don't like. And then either not get enough votes to kill the DMCA, or introduce other laws that you would not want to have.
Since the US' political system is ill-suited to more than 2 parties, the chance that you (plural) can vote for a party that 1) will abolish the DMCA, and 2) otherwise suits your tastes is quite slim.
The issue is that you can't vote for or against one issue, you vote for a party and it's entire programme.
Did I mention that the corporations will probably try to influence public opinion in such a way that they become more powerful?
Re:DMCA Counter-Takedown letters... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Backwards? (Score:1, Insightful)
At least in this case Google is domiciled in the US. It is an American company, and thus the US is within its rights to enforce US laws, stupid as they might be, against it.
Re:AS USUAL... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:what i love though... (Score:2, Insightful)
Old communist times... (Score:2, Insightful)
This nice line: "In response to a complaint we received under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we have removed [x] result(s) from this page." reminds me of old communist times here in Poland, when you could read in a newspaper something like that (translated): "removed under the Control of Publications and Performations Act". So, the Soviet Union is no more, Eastern Block collapsed and now we see something like this in the Land of the Free...
Sad...
Raf