Over the past
few years of evolution of the Section 97A blocking injunction
jurisdiction in the UK, this Kat has always thought it peculiar that while 41
websites are now blocked by the major UK ISPs, all of those websites still
appear prominently in search results when you look for them on search engines.
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MP Mike - cooler than your average MP? |
This is on the
mind of Mike Weatherley MP, Intellectual Property Adviser to the UK’s
Prime Minister, as well. He has recently released this discussion paper, in which he
opines on what search engines could be doing to help combat piracy (while
emphasising in bold type that search engines are not the cause of piracy). As
the paper makes clear, it is not Government policy, but it does contain some
interesting and not entirely uncontroversial proposals. There are a total of 10
recommendations, amongst them:
1. Demotion of websites from search
results once they have been demonstrated to host infringing content, even if
they also host lawful content. Mr Weatherley supports the BPI’s proposal that a
site reported 10,000 times for infringement to a search engine should not
appear on the front page of search results, whatever the search terms, and a
site reported 100,000 times should not appear in the first ten pages of search
results (what if there is only one page of results in total? Muses Merpel).
2. Carry over of site blocking such that once a
court has ordered UK ISPs to block a site, search engines should quickly remove
that site from its listings. Mr Weatherley suggests search engines and rights
holders agree a protocol for making this happen.
3. Ban advertising by pirate sites, so as to cut off their money
supply. This seems uncontroversial, and potentially highly effective. PIPCU estimates that a “Follow
the Money” strategy could close 95% of pirate sites.
4. Un-auto the autocomplete so that pirate sites
and terms associated with them are not suggested automatically by search
engines.
5. The use of trust marks or warnings to flag
infringing sites, similar to those currently in use for sites containing
malware.
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The Internet is full of bad things - but who is responsible for policing it? |
The second
recommendation concerning site blocking is one of two “*Key Recommendations*”
in the paper. Google has so far resisted it – arguing that without a court
order against it, it should not be obliged to take this action. This seems fair
– ISPs resisted voluntary blocking before Section 97A became popular but have
not since hesitated to comply with court orders – so why should Google and its
kin be treated differently? Alternatively, this debate might be solved with a site
blocking application against a search engine… although might that raise some
new legal issues?
Readers will see
that Google gets a lot of references in this post, as it does in the paper –
although it is only one of several popular search engines, Mr Weatherley considers that
as the UK search market leader, Google should show “market leadership” and take
the lead on these ideas.
In this Kat’s
view, we’re unlikely to see any of these ideas become law anytime soon, but
they will all play into the discussions between industry and service providers,
mediated and facilitated by the Government. As always, watch this space…
Kat disclosure: this Kat and his Simmons &
Simmons colleagues act for a number of content providers, rights owners and other
parties with interests in this area, but are not involved in any of the site
blocking litigation for those clients.
10,000 reports? Yes, let's not bother with any of that tedious 'innocent until proven guilty' stuff, eh, Mike?
ReplyDeleteDear Google, in my opinion mikeweatherleymp.com has infringing content on it.
Dear Google, in my opinion mikeweatherleymp.com has infringing content on it.
Dear Google, in my opinion mikeweatherleymp.com has infringing content on it...
...see where I'm going here?
lol and to amplify Andrew's post, there are these things called bots that can make short work of 10,000 reports or 10,000,000 reports.
ReplyDeleteWhich site receives the greatest number of copyright take down notices? Youtube.com.
ReplyDeleteWhich is the biggest search engine? Google.
Who owns Youtube? Google.
Does anyone seriously think Google is going to strangle its own child?
The BPI files up to 5,000,000 request to Google each month.
ReplyDelete