back to article RIAA: Google failing on anti-piracy push

The Recording Industry Ass. of America has issued a report on Google's progress in cutting the availability of pirate websites in its search results, and the verdict isn't so much "could try harder" as "you are an utter failure," as this hack's Latin teacher once judged him. "Our initial analysis concludes that so far Google's …

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  1. ShadowedOne
    Alert

    You are an utter failure..

    Pretty much sums up the RIAA.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      So try harder

      and don't expect us to pay for any of your hard work..................

  2. bag o' spanners
    Facepalm

    All they need to do is either ban the use of metadata on web pages in perpetuity, or teach their buddies on the paid-for services how to shuffle their pages up the rankings with intelligent metatagging. The former could prove to be a struggle too far, even for these grumpy dinosaurs.

    One might also reasonably assume that the RIAA and BPI's frothing_at_the_mouth brigade have not one single iota of a clue as to how a web page is created.

  3. vgrig_us

    Is everyone connected to music industry retarded?

    Is everyone connected to music industry retarded?

    Honestly - this whole world seems to be void of even average intelligence.

    1. Gannon (J.) Dick
      Pint

      Re: Is everyone connected to music industry retarded?

      As George Carlin said, the scarey part about being of average intelligence is that 50% of people are more stupid than you are.

      In other words, the RIAA is playing a numbers game.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        FAIL

        Re: Is everyone connected to music industry retarded?

        Well yes they are - and the RIAA are the sludge in the bottom of the septic tank.

        Some Introductory Excerpts:

        http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100708/02510310122.shtml

        'Hollywood Accounting' Losing In The Courts

        from the math-is-hard dept

        If you follow the entertainment business at all, you're probably well aware of "Hollywood accounting," whereby very, very, very few entertainment products are technically "profitable," even as they earn studios millions of dollars. A couple months ago, the Planet Money folks did a great episode explaining how this works in very simple terms. The really, really, really simplified version is that Hollywood sets up a separate corporation for each movie with the intent that this corporation will take on losses. The studio then charges the "film corporation" a huge fee (which creates a large part of the "expense" that leads to the loss). The end result is that the studio still rakes in the cash, but for accounting purposes the film is a money "loser" -- which matters quite a bit for anyone who is supposed to get a cut of any profits.

        For example, a bunch of you sent in the example of how Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, under "Hollywood accounting," ended up with a $167 million "loss," despite taking in $938 million in revenue.

        Etc...

        http://www.p2pnet.net/story/41701

        Hollywood Accounting and Average Joe

        p2pnet view MPAA:- We’re finally making progress on the real criminals of entertainment piracy. The MPAA ia losing court case after court case using their infamous ‘Hollywood Accounting‘, and losing consistently, primarily because jury members are finally realizing how sleazy these members of the MPAA really are.

        Honestly, how does New Line Cinema think it can gross nine Billion, that’s Billion, on the Lord of the Rings Trilogy worldwide, and then try and weasel out of paying J.R. Tolkien estate for the idea, and Peter Jackson for directing the movie, claiming it ‘lost’ 120 Million? This is probably the reason behind the delay of creating ‘The Hobbit’ movie. If I were Peter, I wouldn’t direct any movie until I got paid for the previous one.

        Hollywood Accounting is where the MPAA (insert big 6 assholes here) create a corporation for each movie, ie Lord of the Rings, LLC, and then purposely use that entity to numerically absorb money, and to reflect a loss by creatively making up numbers for advertisement, distribution, additional licensing and/or copyrights for the particular movie. They illegally and grossly bloat these numbers as ‘expenses’ for the Studio to allegedly ‘pay’ from the gross of the movie itself.

        After ‘New Line Cinemas’ paid expenses to ‘Lord of the Rings, LLC’, there apparently just wasn’t enough money left to pay the director, or the estate of J.R. Tolkien, who owns the copyrights on the idea, and wrote the books. This ensures that stakeholders in the movie itself get the ’steak’ of the profits, whereas the entitled entities, like the writer, producer, rights holder, etc, are left with the ‘peas’, if that. Typically they only get to lick the plate after the fatcat assholes at the MPAA get their ill-gotten gains first.

        Etc.

        http://unitedhollywood.blogspot.com/2008/02/end-of-hollywood-accounting.html

        The End of Hollywood Accounting?

        Will 1+1 someday = 2?

        The WGA, the Teamsters and California State Senator Sheila Kuehl have just announced the introduction of the "Fair Market Value Bill." The bill seeks to prevent studios from selling programming to sister companies for below market value. This particular strain of Hollywood accounting is designed to shift profits away from the studios (where they must be shared with talent and producers and serve as a basis for pension and health contributions) to networks, where they may be enjoyed without the pesky need to pay one's "partners."

        Etc.

        One of my favourite Ted Talks

        http://www.ted.com/talks/rob_reid_the_8_billion_ipod.html

    2. Euripides Pants

      Re: Is everyone connected to music industry retarded?

      No, just the smarter ones...

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Thank you RIAA

    I didn't have those sites listed. Google was not listing any of those. Appreciate the heads up tho.

    :-)

  5. sjsmoto

    Funny, when I google "fair compensation to recording artists", RIAA doesn't turn up at all.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      But think about the compensation to the fiancial sector.

      Poor Visa & Mastercard only get 10 times the amount the recording artists' steal from them.

  6. ratfox
    Devil

    Yeah right

    Seriously, what are the chances of RIAA being happy about Google? ZERO.

    Ultimately, the RIAA is unhappy about the Internet, all of it. It's not like Google is the only search engine; just the most popular one…

    1. Pascal Monett Silver badge
      Alien

      Yup.-, and it's unhappy with the ever-increasing power of the hardware, power that fosters ever more powerful-but-easy-to-use audio and video editing software (some of it free and not all of it bad), and the totally ubiquitous availability of optical burners, not to mention digital players of all kinds.

      Heck, in a few more technical generations, you'll probably have a version of Goldwave on smartphones (if we don't already - I haven't checked that).

      So yeah, they're unhappy. I understand them, but I can't say I care for them.

    2. P. Lee
      Facepalm

      Re: Yeah right

      Plus google is a search engine. From a user's point of view, it exists to find stuff.

      Not finding stuff is an anti-feature - the opposite of everything Google is wanted for.

  7. pepper
    FAIL

    Umm...

    Isnt this expected? Since the RIAA probably googles at lot for these sites and links for it.. The Google filter bubble probably thinks the RIAA is happy with these results and decides to toss up some more to please the user!

  8. Martin 47

    I do believe the googlie ones search results are tailored to an individual and takes into account previous search history?

    So if someone was to be always searching for pirate music sites the search results would be weighted towards showing pirate music sites.........

    Or do I understand Google even less than I understand the music business?

    1. DryBones

      No, that's very true. In theory Google could just delist these sites entirely, I suppose... But that way lies morality police so no, the RIAA gets to go suck eggs.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Fighting the symptoms again eh?

    They probably don't agree with me but with accusations like these all I'm seeing is a "copytheft fighting company" going after symptoms and blaming others for their own shortcomings.

    Because lets turn this question around: Why are those websites still capable of providing "illegal material" in the first place? Aren't organizations like the RIAA getting paid to go after those "lawbreakers" (paid from the taxpayers money I might add, and they're not exactly cheap either!) ?

    So instead of blaming others for their own failures, why don't these misfits start doing their work a little better?

    You see this behaviour happening everywhere btw. BREIN (another RIAA-like Dutch organisation) has "bravely fought" the Piratebay for years, thus spending thousands (if not millions) of the Dutch taxpayers money. It even went so far that the head-honcho himself travelled back and forth to Sweden to "show them".

    Needless to say but despite all their "victories" BREIN ended up demanding that Dutch ISP's needed to block the Piratebay and several other IP ranges and/or domain names. Which ended up in court and this issue is still being fought over (after all, basically they're censoring us).

    Even so: while BREIN claims this situation to be a major victory one could (and should!) wonder why they never managed to shut down the Piratebay in the first place? After all; that has been their main task in life for /years/, all paid by our taxes.

    This is no different; by starting to put the blame (and responsibility) on other parties they're basically admitting their own failures. Yet our governments are unfortunately way too stupid (or way too deviously influenced) not to recognize it for what it really is.

    When I pay someone to do something for me and they utterly fail then I'd want my money back. Strangely enough NOT the government, even though both (US & Dutch government) could really use a financial break right now.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I recon google should ban anything and everything to do with the RIAA, just remove them and all their acts from google search and google sites.

    That, would be hilarious.

    1. TheVogon
      Mushroom

      Not many people use Google to find them these days anyway. Most use The Pirate Bay. https://tpb.ipredator.se/

    2. Esskay

      I was going to suggest something along these lines - any artist under the RIAA umbrella has all search results stricken from Google's results, autocomplete, everything. Make it impossible to find those artists and see how long it takes for RIAA to back off. After all, only pirates use the internet, right?

  11. Tony Paulazzo
    Pirate

    The RIAA's post bill would have bankrupted the organization back in the days of dead-tree mail, and caused a lot of postmen to retire early on worker's comp.

    So what I'm hearing is that new technology is destroying the postal service, and RIAA is helping in this destruction of an entire industry, plus, they're totally failing to force the tide back out.

    They should talk to king Canute. Maybe.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    No, Knut listened to his courtiers telling him how wonderful he was and he 'tried' to turn the tide back to make them look stupid.

    The RIAA et al are like the courtiers - talking bollocks in order to ensure that their position is maintained.

  13. Mr Young
    Coffee/keyboard

    That's the problem you see

    The RIAA is spending all its time "sampling" pirate music (instead of working) and pushing the links up the list?

  14. Serge 2

    F*ck You RIAA

    Just fuck you!

    1. BrownishMonstr

      Re: F*ck You RIAA

      I don't see why you censored the title but not the message. Anyway, +1...

  15. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    FAIL

    "Legitimate download sites like amazon.com"

    1) Go to amazon.com

    2) Just shitty MP3 and "cloud service", WTF? Needs windows. WTF???

    3) Oh all right then. Clickety clickety click VISA click click

    4) "This service is not available in your country"

    5) FUUUUUUU.......

    6) Become proud user of bittorrent

    1. DryBones
      Angel

      Re: "Legitimate download sites like amazon.com"

      Works for me. Might do a little search and see if the band's got a PayPal or other donation box that some coin can be tossed in, but hey.

      "It's a global economy, you might want to try harder to keep up."

    2. This post has been deleted by its author

      1. C Yates
        Thumb Up

        Re: "Legitimate download sites like amazon.com"

        @Larry F54

        Excellent link, thanks for posting! :)

        Kinda reminds me of the cynical-c "pirate-a-dvd-to-avoid-annoying-anti-piracy-warnings" diagram...

        http://www.cynical-c.com/images/GxzeV.jpg

  16. Gannon (J.) Dick
    Happy

    At last.

    This is that "do no evil" stuff Google is always prattling on about.

  17. Irving Lypshytz
    FAIL

    If I were Google ...

    ... I'd tell the RIAA to both a) fix their own broken model and b) fuck off.

    Geeze Louise, what a bunch ...

  18. John Lilburne

    Google promising much, whilst dragging their feet and doing little. I seem to recall it took them several years to hand over the details of the paedophiles infesting their Orkut site.

    http://searchengineland.com/90-percent-of-pedophilia-complaints-in-brazil-come-from-googles-orkut-13742

    Looks like they were still defending their right to push ads on child porn until the US legal system started to move in on them.

    http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aQU78aCnIrC4

  19. Lars Silver badge
    Joke

    Poor RIAA

    Somebody should help them.

  20. Nanners
    Stop

    really

    who cares anymore? I don't. The article is difficult to even sit through @ this point...

    signed, A Musician.

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Whining about Pagination?

    Jesus tits,

    Fravia in 1996 told us to click on the 8th page of google results.

    RIAA says to click on the 5th page

    what fucking difference does it make if it's on the first or 99th page?

    If you want it for free, you are going to click through 1000 pages or more, your going to watch and search every day for the hard to find.

    Hey I got an idea, why even use GOOGLE at all?

    I been having a field day with the "add search engine to firefox" addon.

    Oh my god RIAA, have a fucking beer already. People are tired of hearing this shit.

    Times are tough cause our officials who empowered you to cause mayhem for everyone on the web, also empowered the banksters to steal everything from everyone. It's going to take time before people have money to SPEND again since there are no jobs (except for re-building roads, cops, fire, teachers) so if it isn't a CalTrans guy or a teacher living from paycheck to paycheck, nobody is buying jack shit right now, FOOD GAS AND FUCKIN SHELTER ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOUR SHIT

  22. Winkypop Silver badge
    Facepalm

    Engage Head In Sand mode...

    Hey RIAA, lets go back to the days of wax cylinders when music piracy was unheard of and copying almost impossible for the consumer. Asshats.

  23. jonathanb Silver badge

    iTunes on Google?

    I'm surprised iTunes comes at all unless you specifically search for it, as you don't buy music from them off their website, you buy it from the iTunes app.

    1. The Alpha Klutz

      Re: you buy it from the iTunes app.

      thereby ensuring that it can built a psychometric profile on you for Apple and their media buddies. Siri records everything you say for Apple HQ to review, and its well known that they have been tracking your location since the iPhone was first released.

      Is it just me, or does this sound very..... sinister? I just want to listen to music.. I'm not a slave.

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    RIAA Search

    99% of the time the people who download that music illegally wouldn't have bought it in the first place. The other 1% are probably costing RIAA money, but then there are people who buy form itunes amazon even google music. How many of those that DO pay for music wouldnt have bothered going down to the shops to buy a CD. I know the music I pay for is online, and I would be far too lazy to go into town just to buy a CD.

    Bottom line is I have purchased more music online since these online stores came to be than I ever did before I had a decent internet connection.

    RIAA should launch their own web search service and lets see how good they would be at not listing any pirate music searches at all. I bet they couldnt do it.

  25. This Side Up
    Joke

    Recording Industry Ass. of America

    You dont need the full stop!

    1. Rattus Rattus

      Re: Recording Industry Ass. of America

      Then how would he indicate he has omitted the "-holes" part of the word?

  26. This Side Up
    FAIL

    100,000 notices?

    "Most of the sites identified are those about which the RIAA itself has sent at least 100,000 notices of infringement to Google."

    Surely sending 100,000 notices would have got them dumped as spam if not a DDoS attempt?

    And I wonder if RIAA used Google to search for infringing sites, which could have promoted those sites.

  27. Henry Wertz 1 Gold badge

    Search results reflect what is popular

    What can I say? I'm sure Google did de-emphasize these pages. But, their very popularity re-emphasizes them, and apparently the are more popular than paying for the same files using proprietary software and receiving the file in a proprietary file format. (I'm looking at you ITunes -- if they are going to give people non-DRM m4a files now anyway, why require running proprietary software on a proprietary OS to do it? That eliminates me as a customer.)

  28. The Alpha Klutz
    Trollface

    results that emphasize illegal sites at the expense of legitimate services

    boohoo. why cant i stop crying over this serious matter?

  29. The Alpha Klutz

    what do they expect

    If I search "how to get music for free" should the RIAA be able to tell Google to make all the results about how I am a scum thief? I don't think so. Because if I wanted to be lectured like a child I would pay over the odds for a cinema ticket and go sit in a damp seat being lectured about how all pirates suck by a corporate propaganda piece that, sorry guys, really doesn't make me feel any sorrier for you than I did before. That is to say I really don't care if your formulaic blockbusters end up in Poundland or on the internet and you have to get a real job to pay the bills. No really, I don't care at all.

  30. The BigYin

    Screw the RIAA

    Google have recently caved and (along with others like the BBC) agreed to attack the open Internet with a Digital Repression Mechanism in media formats e.g. WebM. Then we have the six strikes policy too. What more do these freedom hating control feels want?

  31. seraphim
    Holmes

    NEWS FLASH: Google gives people what they're searching for!

    Of COURSE Google gives these in the top results. Google's algorithm is designed to give people what, by commonality, most people want out of a given search.

    I'm surprised they even offered to help. They should have told RIAA "your problem, not mine, we just index", and gone about their business. I certainly hope Google won't start any form of content-based censorship.

  32. g e
    Holmes

    SO. RIAA say Google are failing utterly

    While they take two months to add up the numbers they had in December?

    Maybe they need a new acronym the...

    Horrendously

    Unbelievably

    Bad

    Recording

    Industry

    Society

  33. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Up your RIAA

    Can we have a finger up yours icon please?

    Nuff said.

  34. David Pollard

    Surely Google shopping works

    Don't the sites they want to be seen come up immediately when people search with the 'shopping' option, thus providing every opportunity for purchase?

  35. Green Nigel 42
    Big Brother

    Anonymous

    Where are you?

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