by Ellen Seidler | Copyright, Law, Piracy, Politics
The White House has released its 2013 strategic plan for intellectual property enforcement. The document is 35 pages long and outlines progress that’s been made since 2010 and goals moving forward. Included in the report is a letter to the President and Congress from Victoria A. Espinel, U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, who summaries the findings and outlines progress made since the last report in 2010 which includes:
• U.S. law enforcement has significantly increased its enforcement against infringement that threatens the vitality of the U.S. economy and the health and safety of the American people. Since FY 2009
- − U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)-Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) new cases are up 71 percent, arrests are up 159 percent, convictions are up 103 percent, and indictments are up 264 percent.
- − Pending Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) health and safety-focused investigations are up 308 percent, FBI health and safety arrests are up 286 percent, and new trade secret theft cases are up 39 percent.
- − Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and ICE seizures of infringing imports have increased
- by 53 percent.
• Private sector companies have voluntarily agreed to adopt best practices aimed at curbing the
sale of counterfeit goods and reducing online piracy. For example:
- − American Express, Discover, eNom, Facebook, Go Daddy, Google, MasterCard, Microsoft, Neustar, PayPal, Visa, and Yahoo! established the Center for Safe Internet Pharmacies—a new non-profit to combat fake online “pharmacies” selling dangerous illegal drugs over the Internet.
- − AT&T, Cablevision, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Verizon, and major and independent music labels and movie studios entered into a voluntary agreement to reduce online piracy. Under the agreement, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will notify subscribers, through a series of alerts,when their Internet service accounts appear to be misused for infringement on peer-to-peer networks.− American Express, Discover, MasterCard, PayPal, and Visa agreed to a set of best practices to withdraw payment services for online sales of counterfeit and pirated goods.
- − The Association of National Advertisers and the American Association of Advertising Agencies issued a leadership pledge to not support online piracy and counterfeiting with advertising revenue.
I’m particularly interested in reviewing what said about the efficacy of the private sector’s “voluntary…best practices” approach to see what progress has been made, and whether it jibes with what’s really happening online with regard to piracy, counterfeiting, etc. I’ll more on my thoughts once I’ve had the opportunity to review the entire report.
by Ellen Seidler | Copyright, Law, Piracy, Politics, Tech
It’s no coincidence that Google’s attempting to grab the tech news headlines with blog posts this week trumpeting the company’s ongoing efforts to fight the scourge of online child porn and illegal pharmacies. Google’s links to illegal and unsavory activities is long established, but with increased public scrutiny thanks to the NSA snooping stories and declarations like that of Mississippi Attorney General Tom Hood asserting Google’s search aids online criminals, it seems that Googleiath’s powers that be felt the time had come for some much-needed reputation burnishing.
And so, this week we have not one, but two new Google blog posts that are designed to grab the news cycle and put the Silicon Valley giant in a more favorable light. Never mind that most of it’s really just old news repackaged to fit their latest PR campaign. The first PR blast came Saturday via this post, trumpeting Google’s role in the battle against child pornography online.
Google has been working on fighting child exploitation since as early as 2006 when we joined the Technology Coalition, teaming up with other tech industry companies to develop technical solutions. Since then, we’ve been providing software and hardware to helping organizations all around the world to fight child abuse images on the web and help locate missing children.
There is much more that can be done, and Google is taking our commitment another step further through a $5 million effort to eradicate child abuse imagery online. Part of this commitment will go to global child protection partners like the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and the Internet Watch Foundation. We’re providing additional support to similar heroic organizations in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia and Latin America.
Since 2008, we’ve used “hashing” technology to tag known child sexual abuse images, allowing us to identify duplicate images which may exist elsewhere. Each offending image in effect gets a unique ID that our computers can recognize without humans having to view them again. Recently, we’ve started working to incorporate encrypted “fingerprints” of child sexual abuse images into a cross-industry database. This will enable companies, law enforcement and charities to better collaborate on detecting and removing these images, and to take action against the criminals. Today we’ve also announced a $2 million Child Protection Technology Fund to encourage the development of ever more effective tools.
While it goes without saying that any effort to battle child pornography is laudable, and it’s great that the company is “making news” by donating 2 million more to the cause, but in my (cynical) view this donation appears to not to be driven by altruism, but is more likely born from a not-so-subtle desire to rub elbows with “heroic” organizations and in order to generate positive media buzz for a company facing increasing criticism over its handling of privacy and piracy/counterfeiting issues. Google’s assertion that it employs “hashtag” technology to identify and block offending imagery also raises the question as to why they can’t do more to prevent pirated content from appearing in their search results? Oh, but I digress….
Then today, the Google PR machine was back in action with this post outlining supposedly ongoing efforts to battle illegal (rogue) online pharmacies also appears to be part of their efforts to burnish their increasingly tattered reputation:
For the last several years, Google has worked closely with a number of organizations, government agencies, and businesses to combat rogue online pharmacies from all angles.
Collectively, we are making it increasingly difficult for these operators to effectively promote their rogue pharmacies online. A variety of websites and web services are refusing ads from suspected rogue pharmacies. Domain name registrars are removing suspect rogue pharmacies from their networks. Payment processors are blocking payments to these operators, and social networking sites are removing them from their systems too.
Again, there’s nothing “new” here, really just the same old, same old. It’s also particularly ironic to see Google patting itself on the back for behavior that has not been voluntary. Wasn’t Google the company that in 2011 paid the feds a
half a billion dollar settlement to close a Justice Department investigation into its role in serving and profiting from illegal pharmacy ads. How does that jibe with them combatting
“rogue online pharmacies” for the
“past several years?”Oh, and just a week ago the company was
called out by Mississippi’s attorney general Jim Hood who asserted:
Google’s search engine gave us easy access to illegal goods including websites which offer dangerous drugs without a prescription, counterfeit goods of every description, and infringing copies of movies, music, software and games.
If Google is doing such a great job, why hasn’t anything really changed? When will enough be enough? How long can the company keep tap dancing around land mines before it’s forced to reckon with the fact it enables and profits from a plethora of illegal, online enterprises? If technology can be used to battle child pornography, why not employ it to battle other illegal online activities?
There are plenty of examples of Google enabling and profiting from online crime. I outlined some in a blog post earlier this year, “Chronic, Ill-Gotten Gains–Google’s Web of Piracy Profit” and have also written others:
by Ellen Seidler | Copyright, Law, Piracy, Tech
Websites that offer pirated movies and music are taking it on the chin as of late. First movie2k.to disappeared (only to be reborn as a dubious duplicate) and now Kickass Torrents, one of the most popular torrent sites on the web, has had its domain name (kat.ph) seized by Philippine officials. According to Torrent Freak:
The action was taken following a complaint from local record labels who argued that the second largest torrent site on the Internet was causing “irreparable damages” to the music industry.
The domain seizure didn’t stop the site of course, it merely moved to a new domain name. A message posted at the new domain explained,
We had to drop Kat.ph as a part of our global maintenance….This was a hard decision, but it was necessary for the further development of KickassTorrents. Stay tuned for more news.
“Global maintenance” seems to be their euphemism for staying one step ahead of the law. At any rate, despite the fact the site has moved to a new domain, the good news in all this is that there seems to be increasing momentum to shutdown, or at least disrupt, websites that facilitate illegal content theft. Of course, if you want to find a site to watch or download movies and support the filmmakers who make them you could go here instead.
Update: Torrent Freak has updated this story and adds the MPAA is targeting the new domain for Kickass Torrents in order to get the site’s homepage links delisted by Google.
… the MPAA appears to be hand-picking torrent sites and streaming portals in an effort to have their homepages de-listed from Google. The new KickassTorrents domain Kickass.to is one of the first casualties of this strategy.
This is good news for all the musicians, filmmakers and authors whose work is routinely ripped off via this site.
by Ellen Seidler | Film, Piracy
As the pirate world turns….
The mystery (and confusion) deepens over the fate of the popular pirate movie site Movie2k.to. Two weeks ago it suddenly disappeared from the web. Speculation was that it had something to do with efforts in the UK to block pirate websites. A few days later the site appeared to be reborn as movie4k.to but now, according to a report on a German-language site www.20min.ch the real site is now found at movie2k.tl and the site owners claim movie4k.to is a fraud. Imagine that, a pirate site subjected to fraudulent behavior. Karma….oh, but I digress. Here’s the skinny (translated badly from the original German):
Recently, Movie2k.to than Movie2k.tl again on the net. The operators claim to be the real Movie2k. At the same time they warn other websites Movie2k look confusingly similar. A name is not mentioned, but apparently Movie4k is meant. There, one could be captured viruses, write the supposedly real Movie2k operators.
The virus problem generally applies to free download and streaming portals: “The problem is the integration of advertising banners, the malicious code redirects or contain” says Marc Rubin of the Swiss Pirate Party.
Despite similar design, there is a marked difference between the two competing streaming sites: English-language series and porn movies no longer offers Movie2k.tl the time being.
What’s particularly rich in this story is that it appears, from what I can tell reading the translated account, it seems that the movie2k.to site was actually pirated by the operators of movie4k.to. I must admit, you have to chuckle just a bit when pirate sites start eating their own. Here’s more from the 20min.ch story:
The question remains in the room, why the supposedly real Movie2k-founder no longer use their old web address. An explanation: In Movie4k.to and Movie2k.tl it could be to free-riders, who want to benefit from the popularity of the name. A similar assumption has MarcRubin of the Pirate Party: “. Anyone can copy web content, embed the links to the movie streams and can refer to its own Internet address on” Mostly supervising a team a site like Movie2k. “Maybe there were quarrels and one of the sides is an offshoot,” speculated the pirate.
No matter how this all plays out, it’s nice to see a pirate website getting a taste of its own medicine.
by Ellen Seidler | Copyright, Law, Piracy, Politics, Tech
Surprise, surprise…Google is once again in the spotlight for its role in linking to websites that promote illegal activities. In a statement released Thursday, Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood charged that the search giant facilitates commerce in counterfeit goods and drugs online. Hood is co-chair of the National Association of Attorney General’s intellectual property committee. In the press release issued by his office, he outlined the issues:
…Google’s search algorithm often leads to sites known to sell counterfeit goods being at the top of the Google search results. Additionally, attorneys general are concerned that some of the sites selling counterfeit goods are advertising with Google.
“On every check we have made, Google’s search engine gave us easy access to illegal goods including websites which offer dangerous drugs without a prescription, counterfeit goods of every description, and infringing copies of movies, music, software and games,” said Attorney General Hood. “This behavior means that Google is putting consumers at risk and facilitating wrongdoing, all while profiting handsomely from illegal behavior.”
Hood sent a letter to Google’s Chief Executive Officer Larry Page inviting him to attend a national meeting of the attorneys general on June 18 in Boston to address the group’s concerns, categorized as follows:
- Content Removal – Google claims to only remove content from its search results in a narrow set of circumstances. The phrase “narrow set of circumstances” seems misleading. Google’s own policies on child exploitation state, “we block search results that lead to child pornography. This is a legal requirement and the right thing to do.” However, Google also removes other types of content. For instance, Google removes content from its German portal that glorifies the Nazi party on google.de or insults religion on google.co.in in India. Why will Google not remove websites or de-index known websites that purport to sell prescription drugs without a prescription or provide pirated content? Content removal can be done, but it appears Google is unwilling to remove content related to the purchase of prescription drugs without a prescription or the downloading of pirated movies and songs.
- Auto Complete – Google claims in its April 19th letter that “the predictions that appear in auto complete are an algorithmic reflection of query terms that are popular with our users and on the internet. Google does not manually select these terms or determine what queries are considered related to each other.” This statement is misleading. For example, a user cannot type in “free child” and receive an auto complete of the words “porn” or “pornography.” Google blocks an auto complete of the phrase “free child porn.” However, the phrase “buy oxycodone online” is autocompleted with the words “no prescription cod.” Google states in its April 19th letter that removing generic terms such as “prescription” or “online” is vastly overbroad. The issue is not about these words as stand-alone search terms, but phrases that facilitate known illegal behavior. For example, if you type in “buy oxycod,” the auto complete will provide “buy oxycodone online no prescription cod” as one of the choices. Another example is typing in “watch movies free so” and auto complete supplies “watch movies free solar.” Solarmovie is a known rogue website. The suggested search term by Google, “solar,” results in extensive sites containing infringing content on the first page of results. Can Google not remove phrases from auto complete such as “buy oxycodone online no prescription cod” or “watch movies free solar” without removing stand-alone terms?
- Digital Millennium Copyright Act Notices – Google has repeatedly stated that “sites with high numbers of removal notices may appear lower in our results.” However, websites that continue to appear very prominently in Google search results are the same websites highly listed on Google’s Transparency Report. For example, single searches for a popular new DVD released film results in the website torrentz.eu on the first hit of the search. Torrentz.eu has received over 2,103,239 URL removal requests according to Google’s Transparency Report.
- Role of search engines in curbing sale of counterfeit pharmaceuticals – Google does not mention the role of “search” at all in response to this question implying that search is not an issue of concern despite what is mentioned above. Moreover, Google does not mention its platform YouTube and the role of search and advertising on YouTube in promoting illegal activities. For example, users can search for and view videos purporting to sell prescription drugs without a prescription and other illegal activities all while viewing paid advertisements. What steps is Google taking to address advertising in conjunction with illicit videos on YouTube?
If reading this triggers a sense of deja vu, don’t worry– you’re not crazy. Less than 2 years ago, in August of 2011, Google agreed to a 500 million dollar settlement with the U.S. Justice Department over online advertisements for illegal Canadian pharmacies. According to the NY Times:
Google entered into a nonprosecution agreement with the government last week over the use of its AdWords program by Canadian pharmacies that helped them sell prescription drugs in the United States in violation of a federal law, 21 U.S.C. § 331(a). That law prohibits causing the “introduction or delivery for introduction into interstate commerce of any food, drug, device, tobacco product, or cosmetic that is adulterated or misbranded.
In addition to its role facilitating the trafficking of illegal and counterfeit drugs, Google’s ongoing relationship to illegal pirate movie sites has also been well established. Not only does the search giant continue to feature pirate websites high in its search results, but its YouTube and Blogger sites have also become efficient tools in online theft’s infrastructure.
In his statement Mr. Hood pointed out Google’s reluctance to regulate its own offerings and asked, as so many have before him, why is it that Google manages to block certain auto-complete phrases related to child porn or the Nazi party (on their German portal Google.de) but fails do so when it comes to other illegal, counterfeit content online?
The question of what companies like Google can and/or should do when it comes to illegal or harmful content was brought into sharp relief recently when another Silicon Valley giant, Facebook, was scrutinized for its refusal to act against pages that promoted misogynist and violent “hate speech” against women.
The NY Times featured a piece By Tanzina Vega and Leslie Kaufman “The Distasteful Side of Social Media Puts Advertisers on Their Guard” that examined the balance between free speech and civic responsibility. They aptly noted: “With the money, they are discovering, comes responsibility,” According to the story, YouTube officials claim to be pro-active when it comes to controlling where advertising appears:
YouTube also has mechanisms that give advertisers some control over where their brands appear. “When we become aware of ads that are showing against sensitive content, we immediately remove them,” Lucas Watson, the company’s vice president for video online global sales, wrote in an e-mail. “We also give advertisers control to target specific content, and they can choose to block ads against certain content categories or individual videos.”
The key here is “when we become aware.” The real question for YouTube and Google’s other services (search, Blogger, AdSense) is why isn’t the company pro-active to prevent these abuses rather than reactive? Preventing abuse of its products is not censorship; it’s the responsible thing to do.
via http://www.fairsearch.org/
Google’s reluctance to take decisive action seems to demonstrate that despite half-billion dollar fines and ongoing scrutiny from governments around the world, profits remain paramount, no matter the source.
Unfortunately, these days it seems that Google’s not alone in looking the other way. Just last month shipping giant UPS had to cough up a 40 million dollar settlement for knowingly distributing shipments for illegal online pharmacies.
Enabling trafficking in illegal products is illegal. The time for Google to clean house is long overdue. The question is, will it do so voluntarily or will it have to be dragged kicking and screaming to the table? If past is prologue then my guess is that it will be the latter.
