Google general counsel Kent Walker recently announced that the company is working on ways of addressing the problem of infringing online content. The company is making four changes it plans to implement over the next few months.
Walker says Google is seeing a growing number of issues relating to infringing content. The company has committed to act on takedown requests within 24 hours and is building tools to improve the process for submitting the Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown requests for Google products, starting with Blogger and Web search.
Google has also promised to improve its Autocomplete algorithm, which comes up with keyword combinations that might be similar to the one a user is typing. Autocomplete will endeavor to omit words that are commonly associated with online piracy. Similar improvements are in the cards for AdSense, where Google will be working with rightsholders to identify and expel violators from the program.
Perhaps most importantly, Google has promised to continue working with content owners to make authorized content more accessible. “Most users want to access legitimate content and are interested in sites that make that content available to them (even if only on a preview basis). We’ll be looking at ways to make this content easier to index and find,” Walker said, stressing that giving rightsholders choice and control over the use of their content is among the company’s goals in the area of managing intellectual property.
The industry’s reactions have been mixed. Some observers point to the practical impossibility of enforcement, others view Google’s latest plan as an attempt to appease large film and music businesses that lead the fight against infringement. Some insiders go as far as to say that Google’s new copyright plan offers a punitive solution to a systemic problem of content creators trying to come to terms with and make money from the Internet.