Google: removing "pirated" links from the issue will not solve the problem of illegal content

Google Inc. has published a regular report on anti-piracy activities. The main idea of ​​the document - search engines are not the main source of traffic for pirates. It is interesting that the company's conclusion is based on the results of the study of the American film association MRAA. According to her, search engines give "pirates" only 19% of views.

In addition, approximately 50% of search queries that may lead a user to a link indicating the location of downloading or viewing illegal copies of films, have the name not only of the content, but also of the specific site. In other words, users are well aware of the main suppliers of illegal content, and are confidently looking for materials there.

Google uses in its report and the results of the study of representatives of the British music industry. These results unequivocally indicate that search services are not the basis of the pirated business, as reported by Vedomosti. Google removes from the search results only the pages of certain sites, but not the sites themselves.

The fact is that almost any site that distributes "pirated" materials, there is a legal content. And the removal of such a resource does not give anything. The fact is that pirates create alternative resources instead of closed ones, and this is not about one or two “mirrors”, but about dozens.
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Representatives of the corporation said that the most effective way to deal with pirates is not to delete links or block websites, but to follow the money principle. That is - undermining the financial basis of the work of those who distribute illegal content. Google fights with them by blocking advertisements placed on sites with illegal content, and also takes part in law enforcement investigations that are related to pirates.

Russian copyright holders do not agree with the point of view of the corporation. In their opinion, deleting links is one of the most effective ways to combat piracy. This, in particular, was reported at the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg this year. Producers and online cinemas said that Yandex brings around 80% of the traffic to Russian-language pirate sites.

Initially, the Russian copyright holders were trying to ensure that the domestic search engine began to delete links to pirated resources - just as Google does. The latter only last year deleted about 800 million references to pirated content, according to the complaints of the right holders. In 2015, there were fewer such links - about 500 million.

Google is confident that the level of piracy around the world and in individual countries has begun to gradually decline. And one of the reasons for this is the development of services with legal content. The corporation cites research data in a variety of markets, where a relationship has been revealed between the popularity of legal services and the penetration of piracy.

Google, according to its representatives, aims to make legal content more visible to users. This can be done with the help of "information cards" for musicians or specific films that appear in some search queries.

In early November, it was reported that the largest Russian media companies, including television holdings and online cinemas, signed an official memorandum on combating piracy with Internet companies. The most important point in the signed document is the obligation of Yandex to remove links to pages with pirated content from the results of the search results for users.

As it was reported above, copyright holders in Russia adhere to the point of view that the fight against piracy is ineffective as long as users easily find illegal copies of television programs, films and TV shows through search engines. In turn, representatives of Yandex answered that the current legislation does not oblige the company to block links to pirated content.