Google Puts MPAA On Ignore After Receiving Snarky Response To Anti-Piracy Efforts
Google's efforts to thwart piracy and appease organizations like the Motion Pictures Association of America (MPAA) are pretty much non-stop. It involves removing millions of infringing links from search on a weekly basis, and more recently, Google tweaked its search algorithm to be better at downranking sites that receive a large number of valid DMCA notices.
"We've now refined the signal in ways we expect to visibly affect the rankings of some of the most notorious sites," said Katherine Oyama, Google's Copyright Policy Counsel. "Sites with high numbers of removal notices may appear lower in search results. This ranking change helps users find legitimate, quality sources of content more easily."
Google shared the news with the MPAA the day before the changes took effect, no doubt looking for a public affirmation that it's doing a good job. Unfortunately for Google, impressing the MPAA (and the RIAA, for that matter) is an impossible task, or so it seems. Rather than outright praise Google for its voluntary efforts, the MPAA issued an unnecessarily snarky response.
"Everyone shares a responsibility to help curb unlawful conduct online, and we are glad to see Google acknowledging its role in facilitating access to stolen content via search," the MPAA stated in a press release.
Leaked internal emails between the MPAA and movie studios revealed that Google was none-too-pleased with the MPAA's backhanded compliment.
"[Google] conveyed that they feel as if they went above and beyond what the law requires; that they bent over backwards to give us a heads up and in return we put out a 'snarky' statement that gave them no credit for the positive direction," an email from the MPAA to studios reads, according to TorrentFreak.
It's understandable that Google is ticked off at the MPAA's public response. More than just angry, Google is now ignoring the MPAA, refusing to "speak or do business" with the movie group. It's choosing instead to deal with the movie studios directly, as "at least three" said they "were very happy about the new features."
"We've now refined the signal in ways we expect to visibly affect the rankings of some of the most notorious sites," said Katherine Oyama, Google's Copyright Policy Counsel. "Sites with high numbers of removal notices may appear lower in search results. This ranking change helps users find legitimate, quality sources of content more easily."
Google shared the news with the MPAA the day before the changes took effect, no doubt looking for a public affirmation that it's doing a good job. Unfortunately for Google, impressing the MPAA (and the RIAA, for that matter) is an impossible task, or so it seems. Rather than outright praise Google for its voluntary efforts, the MPAA issued an unnecessarily snarky response.
"Everyone shares a responsibility to help curb unlawful conduct online, and we are glad to see Google acknowledging its role in facilitating access to stolen content via search," the MPAA stated in a press release.
Leaked internal emails between the MPAA and movie studios revealed that Google was none-too-pleased with the MPAA's backhanded compliment.
"[Google] conveyed that they feel as if they went above and beyond what the law requires; that they bent over backwards to give us a heads up and in return we put out a 'snarky' statement that gave them no credit for the positive direction," an email from the MPAA to studios reads, according to TorrentFreak.
It's understandable that Google is ticked off at the MPAA's public response. More than just angry, Google is now ignoring the MPAA, refusing to "speak or do business" with the movie group. It's choosing instead to deal with the movie studios directly, as "at least three" said they "were very happy about the new features."
