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NLPC Continues Bogus Campaign Against Google Video
from the addressing-actual-questions-doesn't-make-headlines dept
Back in July, the National Legal and Policy Council put out a headline grabbing report about how (gasp!) there was copyrighted content on Google Video. We blasted the study for a variety of points that the folks at NLPC either didn't understand or chose to ignore in order to generate headlines. One would hope that a group that wants to be taken seriously would address those concerns. Instead, they simply waited a couple months and came out with a nearly identical report that makes the exact same mistakes the first one did. For a group that claims its whole purpose is to promote ethics, that's quite disappointing. It's also rather amusing that the group, which claims to be promoting transparency and corporate integrity, doesn't appear to make it easy to find out who is funding its activities.
The latest report highlights how the folks at the NLPC found copyrighted content on Google Video. What they fail to mention is that all new content is covered by copyright at the point of creation under US law -- so pointing out that there is copyrighted content on Google Video is like saying that water is wet. What they meant to say (but didn't) was that they found unauthorized content on Google Video. Perhaps the reason they didn't say that, though, is because it's impossible to know what is and what is not authorized without asking the copyright holder. There are plenty of major media companies who have learned to embrace YouTube and other video sites and they want their content shared on YouTube. However, the NLPC doesn't even bother to consider that this is a possibility. It also doesn't acknowledge the simple fact that there is no way for Google to know whether or not the companies approve of the way the content is being used, unless the content companies notify them -- which is exactly how the process works. In other words, Google is doing everything exactly as it should and is required to under the law. The NLPC also (again) blames Google for the actions of its users, never bothering to distinguish between the two and point out how the law clearly separates the responsibility of a service provider from the actions of users. Finally, the NLPC quotes bogus stats on the "costs" of copyright violations, never noting that the stats they're using have been widely discredited. Much of this was pointed out to the NLPC back in July, yet they don't appear to have addressed a single concern. Once again, for a group that focuses on integrity, ethics and accountability, you would have expected much more.
