Google’s choice to welcome and develop openness and transparency of the web has already led the company towards piracy liabilities over last years. This had made Google the tip of the spear in the fight against anti-piracy bills like PROTECT IP Act and SOPA, which are expected to become law next year.
Google has recently admitted that it may leave the U.S. Chamber of Commerce because of its strong support for anti-piracy law. The company claimed that if there was a law that had passed and Google disagreed with it, then the company would still fight it.
Google’s hostility towards anti-piracy laws is explained by its goal to organize the global data and make it universally accessible and useful. This ideology means that the search-engine is able to index, save or copy any information, including private property, and later pass it further for free. In addition, the company’s business model emphasizes that no online data is valuable until it is found and advertised through search engines.
Currently the company is protected with the 1998 DMCA law, which offers Internet service providers safe harbor from copyright violation if they delete infringing content when notified, thus facilitating massive copyright violation, because they saw in the law a good chance to counter rights holders’ efforts to win this battle. That’s how Google managed to copy fifteen million books without the copyright owners’ consent and paying no attention to the legal objections of writers, publishers, the Register of Copyrights, and even a Federal Judge. In addition, the company has also acquired YouTube regardless of its notoriety for copyright violation at that time.
So, when talking about the company’s piracy liabilities, Google Books and YouTube became the prime subjects in this issue. This past summer Google signed a criminal Non-Prosecution Agreement with the Department of Justice, which was supposed to settle criminal charges that it had willingly and repeatedly violated the law prohibiting the importation of prescription drugs into the United States for a few years now. This cost Google almost $500 million. Moreover, the company’s stance on anti-piracy is considered natural, because Google is regarded as the core of the online black market, because it controls access to online data and the business of monetizing it.
Google has recently admitted that it may leave the U.S. Chamber of Commerce because of its strong support for anti-piracy law. The company claimed that if there was a law that had passed and Google disagreed with it, then the company would still fight it.
Google’s hostility towards anti-piracy laws is explained by its goal to organize the global data and make it universally accessible and useful. This ideology means that the search-engine is able to index, save or copy any information, including private property, and later pass it further for free. In addition, the company’s business model emphasizes that no online data is valuable until it is found and advertised through search engines.
Currently the company is protected with the 1998 DMCA law, which offers Internet service providers safe harbor from copyright violation if they delete infringing content when notified, thus facilitating massive copyright violation, because they saw in the law a good chance to counter rights holders’ efforts to win this battle. That’s how Google managed to copy fifteen million books without the copyright owners’ consent and paying no attention to the legal objections of writers, publishers, the Register of Copyrights, and even a Federal Judge. In addition, the company has also acquired YouTube regardless of its notoriety for copyright violation at that time.
So, when talking about the company’s piracy liabilities, Google Books and YouTube became the prime subjects in this issue. This past summer Google signed a criminal Non-Prosecution Agreement with the Department of Justice, which was supposed to settle criminal charges that it had willingly and repeatedly violated the law prohibiting the importation of prescription drugs into the United States for a few years now. This cost Google almost $500 million. Moreover, the company’s stance on anti-piracy is considered natural, because Google is regarded as the core of the online black market, because it controls access to online data and the business of monetizing it.
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