M+E Daily
Google to Unveil 24-Hour Notice-and-Takedown Improvements
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Google’s SVP and general counsel, Kent Walker, told legislators in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday that the company plans to unveil “in the next week or two” improvements to its procedure for removing links to infringing content from Google sites.
Testifying before a House subcommittee on issues of intellectual property enforcement, Walker said that the Internet giant was testing the new system, which seeks to remove links to infringing material within 24 hours of Google receiving requests from content providers.
The new turnaround time aims to boost the effectiveness of the “notice and takedown” process outlined in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Currently, Walker said, Google’s YouTube can act on infringement notices within minutes; but he acknowledged that link removals from other Google sites can take days or even weeks.
Walker’s comments came in response to questioning from Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fl.), who took the company to task for not implementing improvements sooner. The Congresswoman cited data from music industry trade group IFPI that during February 2011, 46% of the infringement notices that record labels sent to Google concerning blogs on Google’s Blogspot network remained active for more than seven days.
“You really have an obligation to take those down within 24 hours,” Wasserman Schultz told Walker.
The Google executive conceded that refining the notice-and-takedown process with copyright holders has been a “continuing conversation,” but he maintained his belief that the parties were “making really material progress.”
The new measures make good on a specific initiative Google announced in December to tighten its copyright controls.
The House subcommittee hearing on Wednesday was the Congressional chamber’s second in recent weeks, as lawmakers consider proposing new ways to stem online infringement and sales of counterfeit physical goods.
