Routine Order

If someone is copying your content and putting it on their website without your express permission, you have every right to complain to Google. You complaint has to follow the prescribed form. In searching for how to report a violation, where someone was copying and reproducing stuff from another blog of mine on their “re-blog” site, I had a tough time finding the details.

One would think Google would list the procedure and make it easier for you to report violation, but unfortunately, that is not the case.

In my case, this chap was aggregating and reproducing my feed in full without my permission. I tried leaving a comment asking him to stop, but I never heard back. So, just for kicks, I decided to send a letter to Google.

Searching yielded the answer. The procedure for reporting copyright violations to Google is described in detail in the Google DMCA page. You have to follow the nine steps, checking them off as you complete them, and mail a regular letter to the given address, or fax it to the given number.

Your complaint will then be displayed at the ChillingEffects clearinghouse.

With any luck, Google will take steps to suspend the offender’s adsense account (hey, at least they won’t make money using your content), or you can initiate further legal action and seek reparation.

I’ll wait and see what happens with my request.

Heartening news from Yahoo: Google book-scanning efforts spark debate - Yahoo! News

A splinter group called the Open Content Alliance favors a less restrictive approach to prevent mankind’s accumulated knowledge from being controlled by a commercial entity, even if it’s a company like Google that has embraced “Don’t Be Evil” as its creed.

The organization will be doling out millions to an Open Archiving group - the Internet Archive. Works to be scanned include those from a Boston Public Library and the Museum of Modern Art.

So what’s wrong with Google’s scanning initiative, you ask? Well, for one they intend to scan copyrighted material without explicit permission, and then show excerpts from the scans that don’t violate the copyright. And then there is the fact that they don’t want the content to appear on any other search engine besides theirs - A monopoly over knowledge, anyone?

It’s like having this huge, bad-ass “public” library, and then putting a gate upfront, and then charging to include books in the library, and to read the books, and no, the books can’t leave the library. There is nothing altruistic about google’s efforts - think about it - if you have original content that was not available in digital form earlier, that is now available only through you - who profits? I guess “humanity” is not the answer as much as “The Google Corporation” is.

I hope the Open Content Alliance survives, and thrives.