Will Google Be Forced into Anti-Piracy?

[Daniel]

Will Google Be Forced into Anti-Piracy?

There?s little doubt that piracy has become a part of our internet culture. Numerous congressional hearings and high-profile legal cases have highlighted the issue, but little has actually been done. To help appease the entertainment industry and prevent these ?rogue websites,? some members of congress are now considering new mandates ? including forcing Google, ISPs, and other groups to block piratey sites completely.


The Age of Piracy
File sharing is the status quo, and almost any movie or album can be found online as it?s released to the general public ? if not before. Some groups have found clever ways around this, showcasing themselves as a service that simplifies media access rather than a reseller of content that could be pirated (one excellent example of this being Netflix). However, there is plenty of commercial incentive for piracy as well. MegaUpload, a site that prompts users to upload (possibly illicit) videos and then pays them for views, earns somewhere between $40 million and $300 million annually.
Lobbyists from the entertainment industry, including Frederick Huntsberry, have brought the issue before congress, stating, ?We?re have reached the limits of self-help.? Some members of congress are willing to consider fairly extreme measures to help the industry, which is seeing decreased profits thanks to the various ?rogue? groups on the net.


Google: A Problem and Solution
Part of Huntsberry?s complaints centered around Google. He demonstrated how easily pirated results can be found just by plugging in a few key phrases into the Google search engine. Several of the possible steps forward in the rogue site crackdown included forcing Google to block rogue sites, or at least to promote legitimate sites such as Netflix, to the top of the SERP.


Concern still abound, however, including the potential impact such mandates could have on the legitimate uses of copyrighted materials. Additionally, the possibility of scaring companies like Google offshore may keep ?forced tweaks? at bay.

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Daniel Reviewed by Daniel on 15th Mar 2011. Will Google Be Forced into Anti-Piracy? Will Google Be Forced into Anti-Piracy? There?s little doubt that piracy has become a part of our internet culture. Numerous congressional hearings and high-profile legal cases have highlighted the issue, but little has actually been done. To help appease the entertainment industry and prevent these ?rogue websites,? some members of congress are now considering new mandates ? including forcing Google, ISPs, and other groups to block piratey sites completely. The Age of Piracy Rating: 5

[Sp32]

In my opinion Piracy is the way forward in technological advances. If it wasn't for the younger generation (14 - 20) pirating all their software and subconciously/conciously increasing their IT skills the technological increase over the years wouldn't be as high. I mean how is a 14 year old going to be able to afford applications what Adobe supply? Most 14 year olds might download an application like Adobe Flash to play around with making little stickmen animations then when they get a couple years older realise what it's actually capable of doing and honing their skills because of it. Then they get employed to a decent IT job for a respected IT company. By that IT company having a really professional site it can grow and invest more money in it's development to create new innovating projects.

I'm not completely one-sided though as I am going to be going into Web-Development & Application Development obviously piracy will be an issue but the fact is companies are going bankrupt because of piracy they just aren't earning what they would be without it..

I think the whole thing is ironic.