Google

:For the search engine produced by Google Inc., see Google search; for the underlying technology, see Google platform; for other uses see Google (disambiguation).

Criticism and controversy

Despite Google's apparent success it has also managed to become the target of critics.

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Copyright issues

A number of organizations have used the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to demand that Google remove references to allegedly copyrighted material on other sites. Google typically handles this by removing the link as requested and including a link to the complaint in the search results.

Related Topics:
Digital Millennium Copyright Act - Copyright

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There have also been complaints that Google's web cache feature violates copyright. However, Google provides mechanisms for requesting that caching be disabled (which Google respects; it also honors the robots.txt file which is another mechanism that allows operators of a website to request that part or all of their site not be included in search engine results).

Related Topics:
Web cache - Violates copyright - Robots.txt

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On June 2005, Google Watch revealed the details of a contract between the University of Michigan and Google to create digitized copies of the copyrighted materials stored at the University's library. This contract is part of Google Print's effort to digitize millions of books and make the full text searchable. There are claims that it is a violation of copyright laws to use copyrighted material for profit by placing search ads beside the search results of these digitized books. Also, Google is setting a new precedent by making digital copies of copyrighted material on a wide scale without explicit permission from copyright holders. Meanwhile, Google claims that it is in compliance with all existing and historical applications of copyright laws regarding books. The contract between Google and the U. of Michigan does make it clear that Google will provide only excerpts of copyright text in a search. The contract says that it will comply with "fair use", an exemption in copyright law that allows people to reproduce portions of text of copyrighted material for research purposes.

Related Topics:
Google Watch - University of Michigan - Google Print - Fair use

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Dispute with Agence France Presse

In March 2005, Agence France Presse (AFP) sued Google for $17.5 million, alleging that Google News infringed on its copyright because "Google includes AFP’s photos, stories and news headlines on Google News without permission from Agence France Presse." http://news.dcealumni.com/376/20305-googles-news-sued-for-infringing-agence-france-presse-copyrighted-work/ It was also alleged that Google ignored a cease and desist order, though Google counters that it has opt-out procedures which AFP could have followed but did not.

Related Topics:
2005 - Agence France Presse - Google News - Cease and desist

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It is possible that AFP will make additional arguments in court that it has not yet made in public, but currently, many pundits are confused by the decision to sue http://weblog.physorg.com/news1362.htmlhttp://www.bayoubuzz.com/articles.aspx?aid=3538http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/2080.html because Google does not display the full article on its site, provides a link to one of AFP's 600 online clients such as Singapore's Channel NewsAsia (which presumably benefits AFP because more people view the article and advertising), and because the articles are available via the providers' websites regardless of Google's actions. It was argued that had AFP wanted to prevent free use of its articles, it should have asked its providers to require subscriptions rather than suing Google. Additionally, "in 2002, a federal appeals court ruled that Web sites may reproduce and post 'thumbnail' or downsized versions of copyrighted photographs," so Google News' thumbnails are likely legal. http://news.dcealumni.com/376/20305-googles-news-sued-for-infringing-agence-france-presse-copyrighted-work/ Still, AFP argues that the headline and first sentence of an article constitutes the "heart" of the work and that reproducing it is copyright infringement.

Related Topics:
Singapore - Channel NewsAsia - Thumbnail

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According to the Canada Free Press, "Google Inc. is now attempting to remove all postings of Agence-France Presse material from its site, although AFP spokesmen say that even if this is done, the lawsuit will continue... It seems that the basis of the lawsuit is just the abstract notion of copyright without any real damages to justify the action." The article concluded "It would be a sad day for those who look to the Internet for news if AFP is successful in limiting what Google can display... AFP’s lawsuit, if successful, is bound to have a major impact on how news is delivered on the Internet."

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The lawsuit's outcome will likely depend on whether Google can successfully argue that its use of AFP's material constitutes "fair use" under copyright law. Google could even argue that it "adds value" to AFP's news without harming the French news wholesaler.http://www.michigandaily.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/03/29/424942b9271ad

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Lawsuit by Authors Guild

On September 20, 2005, the Authors Guild, a group that represents 8000 US authors, with a children's book author, and a former Poet Laureate of the United States, filed a class action suit in federal court in Manhattan against Google over its unauthorized scanning and copying of books through its Google Library program. The lawsuit seeks damages and an injunction that will prevent the company from continuing their very ambitious digitization project. Arguments in the case will hinge around the interpretation of the four factors of Fair Use.

Related Topics:
September 20 - The four factors of Fair Use

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Many commentators in the world of copyright law and technology were not surprised by this development as The Authors Guild has also been involved in attempting to make online publishers pay royalties to writers whose stories appear in any number of online databases without their express consent. In a concession to general concerns about the nature of their project, Google had announced plans back in August that they would respect the wishes of copyright holders who contacted the company to inform them that they did not want their works included in this digitization project.

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• Scout Report "Authors? group files lawsuit against Google" Sept, 2005
• The Google Print Library Project: A Copyright Analysis - .pdf
• Washington Post Sept. 20, 2005 "Google library push faces lawsuit by US authors"

Multinational corporation

Google is a multinational corporation, having offices in over a dozen countries http://www.google.ie/intl/en/corporate/address.html. In order to comply with the varying laws of these countries, several versions of Google restrict very specific keyword searches. According to American law, any copyright owner can require material to be removed via the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, whereas under French and German law, for example, hate speech and Holocaust denial are illegal. Google complies with these laws by banning keyword searches related to these terms. The People's Republic of China, whose human rights record has been widely criticized by the international community, has in the past restricted citizen access to popular search engines such as Altavista, Yahoo!, and Google. The mirror search site elgooG has been used by Chinese citizens to get around blocked content. This complete ban is currently lifted. However, the government remains active in filtering Internet content.

Related Topics:
Multinational corporation - American - Digital Millennium Copyright Act - French - German - Hate speech - Holocaust denial - People's Republic of China - Human rights record - Altavista - Yahoo! - Google - ElgooG

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In the summer of 2005 Google's name became associated with commercial contracts between the Government of China, Microsoft and Cisco Systems which block access to websites using words like "democracy." Google has been involved with the removal of specific sites that are blocked in China from their Chinese news portal. The French news agency, AFP, reported that Microsoft, Yahoo! and Google have all agreed to cooperate in censoring the Internet from their China based sites by filtering out content objectionable to the Chinese government. The list of forbidden words includes "democracy," "freedom," "human rights," and "Taiwan independence."

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Legal issues

Google's efforts to refine its database has led to some legal controversy, notably a lawsuit in October 2002 from the company SearchKing which sought to sell advertisements on pages with inflated Google rankings. In its defense, Google stated that its rankings are its constitutionally protected opinions of the web sites that it indexes. A judge subsequently threw out SearchKing's lawsuit in mid-2003 on precisely these grounds.

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In late 2003 and early 2004, there were rumors that Google would be sued by the SCO Group over their use of the Linux operating system, in conjunction with SCO's lawsuit against IBM over the claimed ownership of intellectual property rights relating to Linux.

Related Topics:
SCO Group - Linux - Lawsuit against IBM - Intellectual property

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In May 2004, the Baltimore Sun interviewed Peri Fleisher, a great-niece of Edward Kasner, the mathematician whose nephew coined the word googol, who said Kasner's descendants were "exploring" legal action against Google due to its name.

Related Topics:
2004 - Baltimore Sun - Edward Kasner - Googol

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Google recently settled a patent infringement lawsuit with Yahoo! by issuing 2.7 million shares. Yahoo! had earlier alleged that Google's AdSense program violated a patent held by Yahoo!'s Overture unit. The settlement cost Google around $275 million which resulted in the company posting a net loss in the third quarter of 2004.

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Personnel issues

Former Google sales executive Christina Elwell, promoted to national sales director at Google in late 2003, accused her supervisor of discrimination against her (see here) after informing him of her pregnancy. After the loss of 3 of her quadruplets, which she claimed was due to the stressful circumstances created by Google, Elwell sued the company. She also refused an offer from Shona Brown, Google Vice President of Business Operations, to reinstate her to a "low-level operations position".

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Partiality

In February 2003, Google banned the ads of Oceana, a two-and-a-half-year-old non-profit organization, which was protesting the environmental effects of a major cruise ship operation's sewage treatment practices. Google claimed that their editorial policy states, "that Google does not accept advertising if the ad or site advocates against other individuals, groups, or organizations."

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Offensive search results

In April 2004, Google received complaints that a search for "Jew" on its site listed the anti-Semitic website Jew Watch at or towards the top of the list. Google insisted this was a result of their content-oblivious PageRank algorithm. http://www.google.com/explanation.html. As a reaction, some webloggers launched a Google bomb to put the corresponding Wikipedia article at the top of the search results.

Related Topics:
Anti-Semitic - Jew Watch - Weblogger - Google bomb - Wikipedia

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Privacy

Main article: Google and privacy issues

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Some have pointed out the dangers and privacy implications of having a centrally located, widely popular data warehouse of millions of internet users' searches, and how under controversial existing US law, Google can be forced to hand over all such information to the US government.

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It has been claimed that Google infringes the privacy of visitors by uniquely identifying them using cookies which are used to track web user's search history. The cookies possess notably distant expiry dates and it is claimed users' searches are recorded without permission for advertising purposes. In response Google claims cookies are necessary to maintain user preferences between sessions and offer other search features. The use of cookies with such distant expiry dates is not very uncommon.

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Some users believe the processing of email message content by Google's Gmail service goes beyond proper use. The point is often made that people without Gmail accounts, who have not agreed to the Gmail terms of service, but send email to Gmail users have their correspondence analyzed without permission. Google claims that mail sent to or from Gmail is never read by a human being beyond the account holder, and is only used to improve relevance of advertisements. Other popular email services such as Hotmail also scan incoming email to try to determine whether it is unsolicited spam email (which Gmail also does).

Related Topics:
Gmail - Hotmail

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Chris Hoofnagle, associate director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, DC warned that "As courts become more frequent integrators of electronic records, there is a greater risk of Google ... becoming a serious privacy threat."

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The PageRank system

Google's central PageRank system has been criticized, some calling it "undemocratic". Common arguments are that the system is unfairly biased towards large web sites, and that the criteria for a page's importance are not subject to peer review. The system is also susceptible to manipulation and fraud through the use of dummy sites. See Google bomb and Spamdexing.

Related Topics:
Peer review - Google bomb - Spamdexing

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