Google Says That Blocking Piracy Websites is not Effective
More and more countries worldwide do their best to fight copyright infringement. Some of them, Australia in particular, even block access to specific areas of the Web, hoping to stop users from downloading pirated content. Google, however, comes up with an allegedly better strategy.
Google says that the analysis conducted by copyright holders shows that “anti-piracy efforts directed towards blocking access to pirated content have not been successful." In addition, the company points out that a complete blocking can restrict access to quality material, as the websites in question also host legitimate content. Moreover, if the governments follow the blocking strategy, it may result in Virtual Private Networks going outlaw. According to the company, the more effective measures should be aimed at making legal content more attractive in comparison to its pirated version.
Google also revealed several strategies that it successfully used against websites that host pirated content. These include cutting off advertising for copyright infringers and downranking their websites as well as altering the search algorithm, so if a search query contains words like “free", "download", or "watch", the user is offered to browse the content legally through Amazon, Google Play or Netflix.
