How Google Will Supoort DMCA Actions

Yesterday, Google issued a statement that should encourage sellers of digital media.  Anyone who sells copyrighted materials has to deal with unauthorized re-distribution of their goods.  While infringing sites can be prosecuted using the DMCA "take-down request" procedure, up until now those sites were able to freely promote themselves through Google search results.

Here is Google's statement:

"Starting next week, we will begin taking into account a new signal in our rankings: the number of valid copyright removal notices we receive for any given site. Sites with high numbers of removal notices may appear lower in our results.  This ranking change should help users find legitimate, quality sources of content more easily."

This statement has triggered questions about DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) and what Sellers can do to generate traffic to their sites as opposed to repeat infringers.  The statement received positive reviews by the MPAA and the RIAA, as noted by popular Search Engine columnist Danny Sullivan.

At Bitmenu, we have designed our systems to benefit media creators.  Now we are seeing Google take the same stance.  From the RIAA quote:

"This should result in improved rankings for the licensed music services that pay artists and deliver fans the music they love."

Of course, Bitmenu is unique in that we enable Sellers to easily reach out to Buyers directly.  The action that Google puts into effect on Monday should help them stand out as well.