Google To Depress Rankings Of Sites Hit By Valid Copyright Claims

The noose continues to tighten against those sites branded by the wealthy content industry as aiding and abetting piracy, all in the name of huge alleged (not proven) losses, all the while racking up ever larger profits.

In a Google blog post today by Amit Singhal, SVP, Engineering, the latest move will see Google next week update its search algorithms with a new ‘signal’, added to the over 200 signals already employed for ranking sites in its Page Rank algorithm, the precise workings of which are kept secret to reduce the chances of it being ‘gamed’. This signal will be the number of valid copyright removal notices they receive for any given site. A high number of notices will depress the rankings of sites accused of piracy, causing them to appear much lower in search results, “Sites with high numbers of removal notices may appear lower in our results. This ranking change should help users find legitimate, quality sources of content more easilywhether it’s a song previewed on NPR’s music website, a TV show on Hulu or new music streamed from Spotify.”

Singhal is keen to stress that Google cannot determine if a copyright has been infringed, so will only act on a valid copyright removal notice from the rights owner. Also, they will continue to provide “counter-notice” tools to allow people to appeal a removal notice.

Of course, this downranking by Google has pleased the MPAA, which issued the following statement from Michael O’Leary, Senior Executive Vice President for Global Policy and External Affairs:

“We are optimistic that Google’s actions will help steer consumers to the myriad legitimate ways for them to access movies and TV shows online, and away from the rogue cyberlockers, peer-to-peer sites, and other outlaw enterprises that steal the hard work of creators across the globe. We will be watching this development closely the devil is always in the details and look forward to Google taking further steps to ensure that its services favor legitimate businesses and creators, not thieves.”