Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) continues to maintain its position regarding the issue of online piracy particularly with the demand of the copyright industry to delete infringing websites in search results.
![Google Rejects To Remove Pirate Websites From Its Search [REPORT]](https://www.valuewalk.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/clost.png "Google Rejects To Remove Pirate Websites From Its Search [REPORT]")
Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) emphasized that the search engine giant will not remove websites suspected to be practicing piracy from its search results. He pointed out that it is against the policy of the company to police the internet and delete websites, but he said it is implementing changes to help reduce piracy.
The entertainment industry had been requesting Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) to take action regarding websites violating intellectual property rights in its search results for years. The search engine giant responded to their demand by implementing different ways to reduce copyright infringement.
Recording Industry Wants Google to Protect Them From Copycats
Some of the measures implemented by Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) included the removal of the word “piracy” and other related terms from its Instant and Suggest services and removing links to pages in violation of copyrights. The company also lowered the ranking of websites from search results based on the volume of take down requests received under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
However, copyright holders are not satisfied with the measures implemented by Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) to curb piracy. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) complained that the search engine giant is not doing enough to reduce the piracy problem despite the 20 million URLs taken down by Google. The organization emphasized that once the infringing contents were removed, the owners of the websites immediately post a replacement. In addition, the RIAA noted that in some occasions, infringing websites rank higher that legitimate sites. The organization wants the search engine giant to delete the entire domain of a website violating the rights of copyright holders.
Google Will Not Give In
Schmidt said it will not give in to the demand of the RIAA. During a press meeting at the Allen & Co. conference, Schmidt said, “The industry would like us to edit the web and literally delete sites, and that goes counter to our philosophy.”
“It is an absolute fact that there are pirate sites and we’ve done things to reduce the amount of people who use them,” added Schmidt.
Furthermore, Schmidt recommended that copyright holders should file a lawsuit against the owners or operators of website who are violating their intellectual property rights. He reiterated his stand Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) is not responsible in monitoring the internet to identify and delete infringing websites.
“Our position is that somebody’s making money on this pirated content and it should be possible to identify those people and bring them to justice,” said Schmidt.
