Copyright or Copy-wrong?
Google has a wicked sense of humor.
Google proves they indeed have a very wicked sense of humor. When asked to sensor, Google shows there is more than one way to skin a cyber cat.
You know those times; when something happens that is just so bizarre and contrary to intended purpose that makes one sit back, jaw dropped, and wonder what in the World Wide Web is going on.
My current online adventure started simple enough. A search that started on drive recovery led to a search on software patches which led to another search on recovery products which somehow led me astray to site links and then SEO procedures and then the prophetic search where I casually typed in link minimum donation into a Google text field and hit “Search”.
Little did I know the proverbial looking glass I was about to step through…
At first there was nothing strange or peculiar about the results but as I scanned the first page of results I noticed something on the bottom of the page I had never seen before in a search. An italicized sentence read, “In response to a complaint we received under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we have removed 1 result(s) from this page. If you wish, you may read the DMCA complaint that caused the removal(s) at ChillingEffects.org.”
Being the curious type I couldn’t resist and after all, what was one more window open on my desktop now. The trail of cyber bread crumbs leading back to my original query was still open in various IE windows all minimized in my task bar, what was one more? So I clicked on the link “read the DMCA complaint” and was whisked off to the site ChillingEffects.org and was quite taken back by what I saw.
Now the whole point of this site Chilling Effects is to “monitor the legal climate for Internet activity” and is obviously run by a group of folks with a very wicked sense of humor to which some could argue that Google laughs along with.
For on this Cease & Desist notice, this DMCA complaint, this digital challenge to keep search results free from political influence, is a grievance from a company called Jade Liquid.
Jade Liquid had the cyber cojones to demand that Google edit their search results to omit a link that referenced “pirated copies or serial keys of JadeLiquid Software’s products (WebRenderer) namely through BitTorrent and file sharing sites” under the blanket protection that the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act provides.
Ok, this all sounds fair and impartial, right? Nothing too shocking? Nothing out of place?
Well from this web of links which led me to this site and reading this page I scanned a little bit further down the page and saw a listing of websites under the banner of “JadeLiquid Software Search queries resulting in links to sites distributing the pirated works are as follows:”
Listed there was over 300 URLs which would lead me to the exact thing Jade Liquid complained about to Google. I now, if wearing the black hat of an online criminal looking for pirated serial numbers, have a treasure trove of links to get the exact thing Jade Liquid was trying to block.
You know, sometimes you mess with the bull you get the horns. Not only this, but because of the digital complaint in which Jade Liquid was so adamant about getting a single link removed from a search result one no longer needs to scan through page after page of results (Results 1 - 10 of about 1,780,000 for “link minimum donation”) to find a pirated serial number.
All I have to do now is click the link found on page 1 of those results and there is a handy black hat resource guide for 300 plus links to get my pirated serial number.
I hope Jade Liquid has a sense of humor because they have proven that even in the digital age, be careful what you ask for; you might just get it.
Tags: Keywords, Google, Yahoo, Blogging, Googlebot, Wordpress, Keywords, SEO, Website, Search Engines