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Google the new Copyright Registrar?

Is it inevitable?

         

androidtech

4:55 am on Sep 27, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



With all the latest uproar about page jacking (see thread of same name), scraping, and outright copy theft, will Google eventually offer a copyright registering service for web sites?

If it was reasonably priced, would anyone mind?

Think about it. The only bullet-proof way to tell Google that a page is yours, is to submit it to them first before publishing it to your web site. After you got your "page receipt authorization" ticket from Google, you could safely publish your web page.

If the major HTML editing packages (Dreamweaver, FrontPage, Fusion, etc.), made it a part of their "Publish" function, it would be pretty painless. They (or an add-in) could even check to see if a page had a Google auth-ticket before it would allow the page to be published to your actual web site.

I'll leave the advantages/disadvantages of Google being "notified" of new/changed pages vs. having to crawl them to others.

Another talking point is what happens if there ends up being an "accredited" web with the old "free range" web. What happens to SERPs, AdSense/AdWords, etc.?

Thanks.

Rizzo

6:30 pm on Sep 27, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I like the idea. I would be willing to pay. I have a competitor that I check on a daily basis to see if my content has been copied. He has copied my stuff so often that I am now working with a lawyer to take care of it.

I would love something like this from google!

rfgdxm1

6:58 pm on Sep 27, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Silly idea. So if I was involved in a copyright dispute this would go before a Google judge?

Kirby

8:00 pm on Sep 27, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



rfg is right. If you've got a good attorney and the USPTO - why let Google decide? Besides, any attorney worth his shingle will name Google as well.

Marcia

8:30 pm on Sep 27, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



It's a government function, a private company could never do it.

androidtech

9:42 pm on Sep 27, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



The use of the term Copyright Registrar may have been unfortunate. I used it as an easy verbal icon to give people a frame of reference. I did not mean to imply it would have the same status as the U.S. Copyright Office.

Regarding copyright disputes *between registrar users*. Admittedly it is only bullet proof for those who use Google's (hypothetical) registration service, but how could it be "cracked" (thereby resulting in a dispute)? Unless your competitor has a BackOrifice like trojan on your web editing computer station, there is no way for them to know what your page will look like before you register it with Google, and subsequently publish it to the web, eliminating the chance for them to copy it and claim it as theirs.

Regarding copyright disputes *between plagiarizing registrar users and non-registrar users*. It would be dumb for a Google registrar user to plagiarize, really dumb. To use the registration service you would need a physical address (or P.O. Box) and a valid e-mail and phone contact (perhaps even a credit card or other ID for *premium* status, like Paypal does). All it takes is one DMCA violation complaint that can be proved by a non-registrar user, and Google would most likely boot you completely out of the program and the Search Index. And unlike now, where all you have to do is register a new domain with phony or anonymous info to get back in Google's index, you'd have a real bear of a time getting a "fake id" to get back into the program. In addition any "page rank" (or whatever the current ranking scheme is) would be decimated instantly.

Philosophical note. I still believe in the crucial importance of an anonymous and free-ranging web. But I believe that is inevitable that there will also be another web, co-existing peacefully with the free-ranging web, where some anonymity is sacrificed for a degree of trust for the pages being published.

Thanks.

[edited by: androidtech at 9:58 pm (utc) on Sep. 27, 2004]

beren

9:53 pm on Sep 27, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



I seriously doubt it will ever happen. In a way I like the idea though, because I am sick to death of plaigurism and copyright theft. And it has mnostly exploded due to Google's AdSense program.

androidtech

9:57 pm on Sep 27, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



>> "And it has mnostly exploded due to Google's AdSense program."

Yes, when money gets involved it distorts.

WebGuerrilla

10:16 pm on Sep 27, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Copyright disputes aren't Google's concern. They are between the copyright holder and the infinger.

The only time they get involved is if you use the DMCA to notify them that you intend to take action against someone you believe is infringing. They don't care who owns the content. They only remove it to remove themselves from potential liability.

androidtech

10:28 pm on Sep 27, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



WebGuerilla,

Regarding your statement about Google not being concerned about copyrights.

True but Google is (most likely) expending tons of money and man hours on endless algo tweaking to try and remove spammers and other detritus from their search pages. Last I heard, Google's salaries are pretty steep. In addition, even though they have over 15000 Linux servers, they are horribly constrained by the amount of CPU time they can reasonably expend on analyzing every page of a web site. This puts an implicit ceiling on how much they can attempt to do with their algo tweaking.

Suppose when comparing for spam or duplicate pages the algo is instead "if registrar member page, accept". This results in vast savings in human and computing resources, greater trust in Google's SERPs, and most importantly (from Google's standpoint), a larger trusted pool of web sites for AdSense/AdWords display. So it does affect Google since it could positively impact their bottom line everywhere it currently matters.

Does anybody else here remember the "Good Housekeeping" seal of approval? It was ubiquitous at its time in the consumer goods industries. Will we be seeing a "Google Inside" or "Good WebKeeping" or "Google Approved" seal of approval soon?

IMHO.

internetheaven

10:45 pm on Sep 27, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Unless your competitor has a BackOrifice like trojan on your web editing computer station, there is no way for them to know what your page will look like before you register it with Google, and subsequently publish it to the web, eliminating the chance for them to copy it and claim it as theirs.

So another way to squeeze the poor webmaster out and get the rich ones higher in the SERPs? So if you don't pay and you take the risk then your site is "fair game"?

I can't see Universities paying out to stop their papers being reproduced on spam sites, can you?

androidtech

11:00 pm on Sep 27, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



So another way to squeeze the poor webmaster out and get the rich ones higher in the SERPs? So if you don't pay and you take the risk then your site is "fair game"?

I can't see Universities paying out to stop their papers being reproduced on spam sites, can you?

Regarding the "fair game" and "taking the risk" comments, but that's what we have right now isn't it?

Also, this levels the playing field between the poor webmaster and the rich one, as long as they both can reasonably afford the registrar service fee. If not, then it reverts back to exactly what we have now. Rich sites can afford SEO companies to boost their sites poor ones can't.

As I said, there will be an accredited web co-existing peacefully with a free-ranging web which would still be completely free (minus domain name fees).

However, if the cost was $50/year per site (total speculation), I think universities would jump at the chance. Don't you think that tons of university students and professors are angry that their papers are being stolen by scammers?

Regarding "squeezing" the webmaster. If the webmaster makes any money off his site, then the damage down by theft of their intellectual property and thereby their revenue stream, including the aggravation and the loss of time dealing with the attack, far outweighs the hypothetical cost.

Two forces work cooperatively here to help Google and the webmaster. First, right now Google is doing all the work of archiving and indexing pages for *free*. Second, the law of large numbers comes into play. If a million web sites (total speculation) sign up for the service, that's millions of dollars for new servers, employees, and support staff. The cost is spread out across the large number of players.

Wouldn't you like to get a friendly qualified support technician next time you have an intellectual property grievance, rather than a vague template letter in response?

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