The National Legal and Policy Center on Tuesday released a list of the top 50 videos it found on the Google Video search engine, uploaded by Web users who might be guilty of copyright infringement. The NLPC said the content in its initial top 50 list had appeared on Google Video for an average of 168 days.
It’s funny that Google’s own search engine technology can’t sort out the copyrighted material from free user generated content.
Boehm said the group’s intention is to raise awareness of piracy. “We realize that this is probably a drop in the bucket in ferreting out copyrighted content among the millions of videos posted on Google Video, YouTube and other popular video sites,” he said. “But we hope that our efforts serve as a resource for copyright owners to check if their content is on the sites without their knowledge or approval.”
Google’s claim is that the responsibility lies with studios, filmmakers and others involved in the pirated material. Google will remove any copyrighted content once the copyright owner informs them, but rather understandably doesn’t seem interested in policing the videos themseleves.
The NLPC, however, is far from satisfied with the company’s efforts. “Google has been dragging its feet for months in coming up with a solution to pirated content,” Boehm said. “(It) still requires copyright owners to go through the laborious process of issuing DMCA take-down notices before the content is removed, while smaller companies are beginning to show real leadership on this issue.”
Picturehouse president Bob Berney, whose company distributed the Oscar-winning “Labyrinth,” seemed resigned to some leaks online. “We have programs to prevent (piracy), but you can’t stop it all,” he said when informed of the NLPC report.
The list is available at the group’s Web site, www.nlpc.org.
