Google is getting hit from all sides. Copyright holders want a cut of the action. AP news service wants a cut for its content too. Telecom infrastructure companies want a cut. Remember Net Neutrality? Web site owners accuse them of not ranking their sites high enough. Advertisers sue for alleged click fraud.
It comes with the territory. The industry leader always takes the heat. Lawyers will make up any excuse to sue a company with deep pockets. Microsoft has certainly taken a lot of hits over the years as well. Again, it is many times unfair, but it comes with the territory.
I remember when I was at AltaVista and we were the most popular search engine on the Internet. We faced many of the same problems. Playboy and other high profile companies threatened to sue us for indexing their content. Lots of other companies complained that we were not indexing their content or ranking it high enough. We tried to be fair and impartial in what we indexed and how it was ranked. People will complain no matter what you do.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) gives search engines a special "Safe Harbor" exemption from copyright issues. Yet, lawyers will still try to sue in an attempt to get a cut of the action. Perfect 10 is doing that now with Google, just like Playboy did with AltaVista 10 years ago. I know how this story ends. Google will reach a compromise with Perfect 10 and they will drop their suit.
A quick reminder about copyrights. I learned a lot about copyright law when I was VP of Napster. Here is the deal. Unless you are a search engine with the DMCA safe harbor you need to be aware of copyright laws. All content, amateur or professional, no matter how lame, is automatically copyrighted...even without the big circle C. Even this post is copyrighted...automatically. The content owner doesn't need to do anything to create a copyright, BUT they are responsible for enforcing it. Most don't care. In fact, they want their work viewed and reused by as many people as possible. For more information on copyrights see my earlier post.
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Hi Don! Thanks for the insightful info regarding copyright. I didn't realize it was so treacherous for search engine companies. But then again, lawyers (er liars) always seem to prey on dubious circumstances. Heck, they have no other talent and need to live off the backs of others. Seriously!
Posted by: Max The IT pro | August 07, 2006 at 04:36 AM