With great power comes greater responsibility

Google search ranking is the stuff webmasters obsess on. It is also the reason Google has been under fire, from media companies, for facilitating piracy. While Google is holding firm on its refusal to remove a site from its search results entirely, it is responding to these charges by rolling out a change to its search ranking algorithms that will lower the rankings of websites that have received a high number of valid copyright infringement notices. 

While the Music and Movie industries, notably The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and The Motion Picture Association of American (MPAA) are in favor of this move, organizations dedicated to protecting online freedom such as Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Public Knowledge are concerned that user-generated content sites could be harmed by this change which would let rights-holders dictate search results.

  

Takedown requests are nothing more than accusations  some of which later prove to be unfounded and a demoted site may not know about, or easily challenge these accusations. Google's explanation of the planned changes does not clarify what constitutes a "high number" of takedown requests, or if there will be any recourse available for sites that have been demoted. Under US law, once a valid "counter notice" claim is filed, the service provider must reinstate the content unless the alleged copyright owner brings a lawsuit in district court within 14 days.

This change by Google could become a system that may be abused by organizations that want to suppress their rivals. Popular sites could receive a disproportionate numbers of copyright infringement notices without being in infringement. Further, Google's prominence as a search engine may take a beating as the masses looking for free content move to other search engines that do not implement this policy.