Google will begin actively making it harder to find copyright pirates using its search service starting this week. Google made the announcement in a blog post last week. Google has traditionally handled infringement through its DMCA (digital millennium copyright act) takedown notice procedure. I wrote about this procedure on Trademarkology back in August in the context of trademarks that are also subject to copyright. The new tweaks to Google's algorithm will intentionally demote sites that traffic in copyright infringement, as reported to Google through the DMCA takedown process. Google will also remove these infringing sites from autocomplete predictions to make it harder for searchers to find the sites.
While these moves may help the entertainment industry the most, other businesses often find their content being misappropriated by competitors. I often get complaints from clients who have discovered that their products are being knocked off on Amazon, Ebay, or competitor's websites.
Google's announcement provides one more reason to be vigilant about submitting takedown notices when you notice that your content or products are being pirated.
Links to takedown notice forms for several major companies are below:
1) Google
2) YouTube
3) Ebay
4) Amazon
5) Instagram
6) Twitter
7) Facebook
8) Pinterest
9) Tumblr
10) Alibaba (I've never used this one though, I think it may be new).
Please keep reporting infringing content – both to defend your own intellectual property and to demote those knockoff websites!
A slightly different take on the interplay between infringement, fair use and the DMCA takedown process can be found on YouTube:
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