Both the music and movie industry has expressed concern over the increase of online piracy but also blaming search like Google for not doing enough to stop these illegal downloads.
With prior talks between entertainment executives and Internet companies failing to reach a solution, the effort to revive negotiations was suggested recently by RIAA chairman, Cary Sherman, in saying, “We invite Google and the other major search engines to sit down with us to formulate a plan that goes beyond promises of action and actually serves its intended purpose of deterring piracy and giving the legitimate marketplace an environment to thrive.”
However, it was also emphasized that this desire to revive negotiations between the two has nothing to do with the proposal last year where unreasonable regulations were to be imposed on Internet companies, and which resulted in not being passed as legislation.
The inability to reach an agreement in private talks then between the two parties occurred as activists and tech companies stated that these regulations would damage the Internet’s reputation as being an open and free enterprise.
Even if this debate has fallen off the radar for some time now, the RIAA and MPAA’s lobbyists returned to Washington this week so as to discuss these concerns again with sympathetic legislators while bringing with them research on the growing threat of online piracy.
Google, on the other hand, has conducted its own research and while declining to comment, has directed reporters to this piracy assessment of theirs.
While lobbyists are highlighting the fact that online piracy affects the U.S economy, independent activities believe that this is hardly the case. Alternatively, Google believes that piracy occurs not due to the use of Google Search (or other search engines) but actually from friends as well as social media networks.
