The “plank” in this case means search ranking on Google. The Googs announced a new policy on Friday that aims to penalize sites which continually post copyrighted material. Google isn’t actively searching for copyrights, but it is receiving over one million requests each week, mostly from recording industry folks and big media companies like NBCUniversal, asking to have sites blocked. So if a recidivist site doesn’t comply, its Google search ranking will go down, eventually pushing it into the nether-world of page three and beyond – face it, you rarely look past page one right?
The move comes as Google itself is attempting to become a major seller and distributor of professional video and music content through a variety of services, from its YouTube video site to the Google Play online-media store to its pay-TV service in Kansas City, which required deals with cable-channel networks. It is pursuing such initiatives partly in a bid to compete with Apple Inc. and Amazon Inc., among other tech companies that distribute media.
One big exception: YouTube, Google’s own service that sees users upload something like a half a ba-million videos that might could come into question. From Search Engine Land:
YouTube will let those who want to do a removal do so, but it also pitches a way to submit multiple notices more easily through a special Content Verification Program (a sign that YouTube gets lots of takedown requests), as well as the pretty cool Content ID system, which lets those who have infringement allegations decide to be mellow, let those videos stay up with ads and collect some income off of it.
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