Google are to offer a service to allow copyright holders to easily get links to unauthorised downloads of their material taken down.
The new service will involve an admin fee. Once the content owner has found an illegal hosting of their material, they’ll be able to use the DCMA take-down system to force Google to remove it from their search results – with presumably the anticipated knock-on effect of the host removing the content from their site altogether once this legal procedure has been ennforeced. The cost of using the service will be $5 (£3.12) per 1000 queries - but that does not include the cost of having the link taking down, which is as yet unspecified..
Commentators are expecting Google to become more proactive in stopping unlicensed content from appearing in its searches as it attempts to woo the US music, TV and movie industries into supplying them with content for its Google TV service. This measure follows on from their development of the ContentID system to YouTube to pay royalties to copyright holders whose material is uploaded by other users to the site.
Source: www.cmumusicnetwork.co.uk