Google details copyright removals in search
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 24th May 2012 22:34 UTC
Google Google has released a treasure trove of data about takedown requests regarding possible copyright violations. What may surprise some - but is actually kind of logical if you think about it - is that most requests, by far, come from Microsoft. You'll be surprised about the total amount of requests, and looking at some of them in more detail, it becomes obvious just how much certain organisations would abuse takedown power if they had it.
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by l3v1 on Fri 25th May 2012 05:27 UTC
l3v1
Member since:
2005-07-06

to remove search results [...] Each request names specific URLs to be removed


I'm always standing confused at this. I know it's been debated long and hard several times, I'm still not convinced. I mean, if such content is out there to be found, with or without a search engine, then if a search engine indexes and returns such content, the "offended" parties should be thankful towards such search engine to be able to find such content, and then they should go after the ones who post such content, not the search provider. In my view, a search engine should provide all the answers it can find that are relevant to a query, and should never be held accountable for what it finds. After all, it's its main purpose to find those results. Yet it always seems that takedown req. submitters think of a search engine as a content provider, which it isn't (except when they actually provide some processed data that they compile from other sources, but I highly doubt those contain much infinging material).

Edit: I just saw Lorin's comment above, +1.

Edited 2012-05-25 05:28 UTC

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