Google's New Algorithm Change Raises Concerns

[Cartmanuk]

Google announced that it will implement a new ranking signal into its search algorithm from monday. The search engine will start taking the number of “valid” copyright removal notices it receives for a site, into account when ranking content.​

Copyright removal notices are nothing more than accusations of copyright infringement. No court or other umpire confirms that the accusations are valid. Demoting search results – effectively telling the searcher that these are not the websites you’re looking for – based on accusations alone gives copyright owners one more bit of control over what we see, hear, and read​

Public Knowledge Senior Staff Attorney, John Bergmayer said:

It may make good business sense for Google to take extraordinary steps, far beyond what the law requires, to help the media companies it partners with. That said, its plan to penalize sites that receive DMCA notices raises many questions. “Sites may not know about, or have the ability to easily challenge, notices sent to Google. And Google has set up a system that may be abused by bad faith actors who want to suppress their rivals and competitors. Sites that host a lot of content, or are very popular, may receive a disproportionate number of notices (which are mere accusations of infringement) without being disproportionately infringing. And user-generated content sites could be harmed by this change, even though the DMCA was structured to protect them..

It will be interesting to see how Google’s new policy holds up to abuse.

 

[Fear Zoa]

So if I'm reading this right it someone could accuse a competitor of copyright in order to move their ranking up due to the claims not needing to be valid?

If so I can see why that's an issue cause you know people will take advantage of it.

 

[naved.islam14]

Google when did you become Sony?

 

[BORTZ]

Usually i agree with google but i feel like this is a bit more sketchy.

 

[LockeCole_101629]

switch to yahoo or bing?
or even better tpb?

you know... this forum/site also can get DCMA notice because it too popular of being end up results for searching Best Flashcart for 3DS

 

[Sheimi]

I have a feeling Copyright owners will flag a lot of stuff to make sure we only get to see what they want.

 

[MelodieOctavia]

This will end up being a mistake. It will most likely get retconned as soon as it hits the tubes.

 

[Clydefrosch]

who cares if you dont download illegal stuff anyway?
its meant to put legal options like hulu to the top of searches instead of the illegal online stream or torrent links. they'll find a way to check the validity of notices so whatever

 

[Carnivean]

who cares if you dont download illegal stuff anyway?
its meant to put legal options like hulu to the top of searches instead of the illegal online stream or torrent links. they'll find a way to check the validity of notices so whatever

The amount of illegal content on a site is not at all relevant to where it should appear in search results. If mediafire or some other site is the most popular file hosting site on the internet it should still appear first for file sharing if you search for that, regardless of it potentially housing copyright infringing material.

And this is without even taking into account the potential rival abuse mentioned prior in this thread.

 

[Clydefrosch]

if you search for mediafire, it will show you mediafire links still
what it wont do is add mediafire to your search when you look for "how i met your mother season 1 download"
what it also wont do is show mediafire links at the top when you search for "how i met your mother season 1 download" (though for me, it still shows me several torrent sites as the first results atm)

the thing is, if you look for commercially available stuff, i find its a good thing when people are relayed to legal commecial shops and whatever, unless its specifically mentioned that they want to look for the illegal stuff.

 

[notmeanymore]

If they stick to this, I may start using DuckDuckGo, the last unfiltered, non-tracking search engine.

 

[DiscostewSM]

if you search for mediafire, it will show you mediafire links still

you sure it wouldn't list things like "Rapidshare" first if they described it using Mediafire like "mediafire alternative"?

 

[stanleyopar2000]

If they stick to this, I may start using DuckDuckGo, the last unfiltered, non-tracking search engine.

CUIL *was* also an unfiltered non-tracking search engine

and if it's too good. the regime known as the MPAA can just bribe the government to tell DuckDuckGo to filter their results or go fuck a duck

 

[Gahars]

It seems like Google is searching for a solution to this problem; hopefully some better results turn up soon.

 

[the_randomizer]

The MPAA, RIAA, etc are all losers who get paid too much. Those organizations need to die, like now.

 

[jalaneme]

If they stick to this, I may start using DuckDuckGo, the last unfiltered, non-tracking search engine.

best thing anyone can do, google is absolutely useless as a search engine, the sooner people ditch it the better, you can't even find anything simple on google anymore, it's absolute junk.

 

[Nebz]

If they stick to this, I may start using DuckDuckGo, the last unfiltered, non-tracking search engine.

best thing anyone can do, google is absolutely useless as a search engine, the sooner people ditch it the better, you can't even find anything simple on google anymore, it's absolute junk.

I actually find my pr0nz just fine :3

 

[Rydian]

Damnit, DuckDuckGo doesn't know what punctuation is either. :\

God forbid a search engine allow you to search for hyphenated words.

 

[LockeCole_101629]

If they stick to this, I may start using DuckDuckGo, the last unfiltered, non-tracking search engine.

thx mate, didn't know any better than bing or yahoo which both are not really good either.
starting to like it.

 

[MelodieOctavia]

For those of you that aren't convinced to switch to DuckDuckGo just yet, maybe this will convince you.

http://dontbubble.us/