Google? Purveyor of pirated movies?
p2pnet news | Movies:- Is Google, “more interested in boosting its audience - and potential profit - than protecting the intellectual property of Hollywood studios, record labels, authors and publishers”?
Harsh. But is it true?
Google, a supporter of piracy?
Well, shiver me timbers, maties, but that’s what “ethics group” the National Legal and Policy Center, says, according to Associated Press, which continues:
“In letters sent to several lawmakers Wednesday, the National Legal and Policy Center excoriated Google for allowing its video-hosting service to become an online theater for showing and promoting illegally copied movies.”
It looks almost like a line lifted intact from a Hollywood MPAA hand-out, doesn’t it?
But it couldn’t be. Could it?
“NLPC promotes a single standard of ethics in public life through research, education and legal action,” it says on its site.
Meanwhile, “The grievances made to Congress focused exclusively on content found on Google’s Web site rather than the company’s more popular YouTube subsidiary that is being sued by Viacom Inc. for alleged copyright infringement,” says AP, adding:
The National Legal and Policy Group found plenty of room for improvement after poring through Google’s video site from Sept. 10 through Sept. 18.
That review uncovered 300 apparently pirated movies that that had been viewed a combined 22 million times. About 60 of the movies were recent theatrical releases, including popular films like “Shrek The Third,” “Oceans Thirteen” and “The Bourne Ultimatum” that aren’t even available on DVD yet.
In some instances, the movie titles were misspelled in apparent attempt to skirt detection. Some of the copyright violations were egregious, [NLPC chairman Ken] Boehm said, because it was obvious the movies had been taped in a theater with a video camera. Some of the movies also included Web links to sites specializing in pirated video, Boehm said.
To help hunt for apparent copyright violations, Boehm said he hired his 18-year-old nephew for $10 per hour. He suggested Google might be able to afford to hire more copyright cops, given the company earned nearly $2 billion on $7.5 billion in revenue during the first half of the year.
Copyright cops? Paid for by Google?
And why not? After all, universities across America are funding and staffing entertainment cartel copyright enforcement operations launched against their own students.
That dry, rasping sound you hear is MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) boss Dan Glickman rubbing his hands together.
Also See:
Associated Press - EBay Denies Security Breach Led to Data Posting, September 26, 2007
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September 30th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
well, google has blocked the ability to download videos. i tried a few programs and services but they’re blocked, and there aren’t any download links on google anymore.
October 1st, 2007 at 7:15 am
http://www.google.com/donoevil
October 9th, 2007 at 3:09 am
the movies are still there, plus there are many ways to save them if you look, I watched final destination 3 yesterday and today found the latest “bourne” movie complete and in dvd quality, not sure how the files are uploaded nor why they are there but they are there if you look.
I only found them by accident as I was looking for old public domain sci fi movies but was surprised to find almost countless stuff including 100`s of old b/w sci fi movies and some funny old public information stuff about drugs and nuclear war survival (sit under a desk etc etc)
Great stuff