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RIAA thinks Google isn't doing enough to stop online piracy

RIAA thinks Google isn't doing enough to stop online piracy

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On its blog, the RIAA complains that Google's copyright "take down" tools are too limiting to be effective.

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Pirate
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Google recently added piracy "Removal Requests" to its Transparency Report, and in doing so it has provoked a rather fiery response from the RIAA. On its blog, the RIAA complains about how Google's takedown limitations — 1,000 links per request and a limited number of requests per day — fails to address the scope of music piracy on the search engine.

At face value, the RIAA's complaints seem in line with the company's motivations, but as Nate Anderson of Ars Technica points out, there are several companies that request far more takedowns than the RIAA. This disparity indicates that there's not so much a problem with Google's system as there is a desire within the RIAA to be given the ability to pull infringing sites at its sole discretion.

This desire is expressed even more directly when the RIAA complains about how, once an individual link is taken down, another link can pop up just as easily on the same site. It goes on to say:

"...if 'take down' does not mean 'keep down,' then Google's limitations merely perpetuate the fraud wrought on copyright owners by those who game the system under the DMCA."

This intention to "keep down" websites that displease the RIAA falls neatly in line with the association's support of SOPA. Adherence to the DMCA in the form of take down requests clearly isn't enough, not only for the RIAA, but throughout much of the entertainment industry: well-known talent agent Ari Emanuel argued with our own Joshua Topolsky last night at AllThingsD's D10 conference over Google's lack of piracy filtering.