Commentary
Ad Networks Unveil Anti-Piracy Plan
- by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, July 15, 2013
Google, AOL, Yahoo and other Web companies that operate ad networks pledged to follow an anti-piracy policy that involves cutting off sites -- namely, those that are “principally dedicated to selling counterfeit goods or engaging in copyright piracy.”
The agreement contemplates a notice-and-takedown system for “rogue” sites. Here's how that would work: Content owners would notify ad networks about sites that allegedly infringe copyright or trademark. The ad networks will then investigate the situation. After doing so, the networks can take a variety of measures -- up to and including expelling the site from the network.
Signatories include 24/7 Media, Adtegrity, AOL, Condé Nast, Google, Microsoft, SpotXchange, and Yahoo. The White House praised news of the deal, which the Interactive Advertising Bureau helped forge.
Reaction to the deal has been mixed. Digital rights group Public Knowledge called the agreement “a sensible document that seeks to balance internet users' free speech, privacy and fair use rights with content owners desire to protect their copyrights.”
But Santa Clara University law professor Eric Goldman compared the new arrangement to the much-maligned Stop Online Piracy Act -- which would have empowered courts to prohibit ad networks from doing business with sites “dedicated” to piracy. Google and other Web companies, along with digital rights activists, successfully defeated that law last year. Among other concerns, critics said the law could harm companies that rely on user-generated content; those companies appear to face an increase risk of being labeled as “rogue” -- especially if they lack the resources to actively police posts for infringement.
Wendy Davis is a Senior Writer at MediaPost. You can reach Wendy at wdavis@mediapost.com
Isn't Google and Microsoft going to have to label their search engines with these definitions? What about Youtube and the large amount of pirated content contained there? While I believe that stopping piracy is everyone's goal, this might not be the right way to go about it. The publisher will be labeled by a jury with no review process or defense. This is a vague judgment call even their own properties can't live up to.
This doesn't shut down sites - just removes their supply of adverts from the likes of Google, which is not so bad. But something puzzles me: if a site is, “principally dedicated to selling counterfeit goods", surely it will make its money from selling these counterfeit goods, so why would it care about ads? Doesn't make sense.