HBO Tells Google to Remove Links to HBO

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HBO sent take down notices to Google to remove links to its own website over copyright violations. Haha! What a bunch of dumb asses. :D

HBO has filed a request with Google demanding that they remove links to — you guessed it — HBO’s own website, because they say they are violating their own copyrights. The request demands that links to other legitimate sites be removed as well, because again, automated DMCA takedown requests are the worst.
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I wish, oh so wish, Google, and others, would collectively ban together and charge say fifty cents for every takedown request.
 
Just what I was mentioning in the other thread about this - the automated tools that have sprung up are wayboutta control because tjeres no penalty for being frivolous or false-positive
 
And BTW its not typically the copyright holders themselves spamming DMCA takedowns, its usually a middleman acting on behalf of, typically a guy in a den with custom letterhead that attempts to contract with copyright holders for a monthly fee, usually after doing the first month for free unsolicited so they have demonstrable results to show during the sales pitch
 
Google should take them down. All references to HBO just GONE. HBO is easy to remember, but a lot of people still type a URL in the search box.

Frivolous takedown requests should be charged $150 each.
 
Not only remove the legitimate sites but go ahead and forward the DCMA over to MS to take it off bing/yahoo to purge these nasty sites from 99% of the search engines
 
If I was Google I would remove all links to HBO and refuse to restore them until they agreed to stop sending take down notices.

I forward all these stories I see to my senators and rep and I still get the canned responses about how the DMCA isn't being abused.
 
Remove everything and when they ask to be added back to google for spidering and indexing google should reply:

"your site is a known piracy website and cannot be added back to google out of respect to HBO and its copyright holders"
 
Ur_Mom said:
Google should take them down. All references to HBO just GONE. HBO is easy to remember, but a lot of people still type a URL in the search box.

Frivolous takedown requests should be charged $150 each.
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Read the article you butthead.
 
Seventyfive said:
Remove everything and when they ask to be added back to google for spidering and indexing google should reply:

"your site is a known piracy website and cannot be added back to google out of respect to HBO and its copyright holders"
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That goes for you too.
 
I thought that you could put an instruction in your web site, to tell the indexer not to index.
 
"Google managed to realize that these requests were bogus before it actually removed any links"
 
DW-UK said:
I thought that you could put an instruction in your web site, to tell the indexer not to index.
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It's a robot.txt file and there's also a meta tag, but that doesn't mean you can crawl the site anyway.
 
picture very related:
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Seventyfive said:
Remove everything and when they ask to be added back to google for spidering and indexing google should reply:

"your site is a known piracy website and cannot be added back to google out of respect to HBO and its copyright holders"
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If the companies actually begin to lose revenue because of sites like Google complying with all of these requests, then maybe they will stop working with the middle men who are generating the requests until they find a way to make it more accurate. Only when they begin to lose more money from the process than they can save by removing the offending links will they get a clue.
 
pgwalsh said:
It's a robot.txt file and there's also a meta tag, but that doesn't mean you can crawl the site anyway.
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I am guessing that Google’s search indexer will pay attention to the “noindex” tag, and that an argument for its required use, in order to opt out, could easily be formed, which will stand up in Court. That is probably, partly, which led Google to become suspicious that this request was bogus.
 
It's soooooo frustrating to see on a consistent basis the same thing being repeated over and over and over again. Basically I'll use this example:

When EA and Activision first started off during their infancy with the days of Nintendo and Sega, they weren't the mega corporate powerhouse that exists today, so the creators back in then weren't beholden to stock holders or the quarterly reports. Instead, their only motivation was to create and develop a fun game. But as they became bigger and more successful, money became their bottom line and then we started seeing the originality and spark disappear and now we're seeing the lemons that exist today, COD4, Madden 2013 (the list goes on and on), and to a larger extent look to what Blizzard has become: see Diablo 3.

Then we have DRM measures which further alienates and pisses off their fans even more because they naively believe putting a security feature on a shitty game that REQUIRES 24/7 online access will somehow bring the flock of new consumers to the table. But in reality it is driving the consumer base to torrent their games rather than purchasing them. It's less painful, there's no international policy restrictions or unnecessary requirements, and the accessibility is so much easier for them.

Ask yourself this: If you're living in Lithuania and your country has some outdated policies in place, is it fair to you personally to wait 6 months before you can order a copy of Dead Space 3, when Americans are already getting it now?

And finally, the costs of making a big budget game are beyond absurd at this point. Star Wars: The Old Republic cost $200 million to develop and I don't have to tell you guys what the outcome of that game. What's worse, it was developed for the PC so there were more risks involved in going that route. We can argue all day long at the reasons why it failed: mechanics of the system, the story of the game, classes, layoffs, whatever. But the underlying truth is this game was under the wing of EA, and they desperately tried to capitalize on the success of WoW and failed miserably in terms of making their money back, so the blame largely goes to EA, but the sad truth is they're so enveloped in their business model and making money, they no longer see reality and why they're ultimately destroying themselves and the industry as a whole.

Which goes back to my original point with HBO....

They're repeating the same mistakes the video game industry is doing. The production company which was responsible for some of most influential and creative pieces of television art such as The Soprano's, and my favorite TV show of all time The Wire; HBO consistently set the standard and bar in terms of creative and original television. But just like EA and Activision, HBO started to dramatically change their prerogative with the advent of the internet in terms of what their business should be.

If you want to get access to their shows through online, you have to already a cable subscription which for many of us is a deal breaker. Not to mention their cost are unreasonably too high. And I can only imagine what it's like for someone living outside of the US and the hula hoops they have to go through in order to watch Game of Thrones. Let's not forget that last year GoT was the most pirated television show in 2012, I wonder why ;).

But HBO refuses to acknowledge those painful truths, so instead of broadening their access through Netflix which would open up millions for HBO, and removing the insane requirement of cable subscription, they collectively throw their hands in the air, whining like a spoiled greedy child and treat their customers like petty thieves because in their mind we're self serving fools who should be grateful for scraps of bread.

The problem with modern television is that they're stuck in their ways of content creation companies. They pine for the days when people watched what the networks provided for them to watch when the networks decided to let them watch it.

These are the people that have legislated the continuation of their out dated and out moded business model. They hide behind the boogey man they named piracy and then used and good old bribes to make it legally sacrosanct that they control it all.

At my very core, Imma philosopher (a very inexperienced and bad one I might add) but these sorta issues touch at a deeper but a much deeper and more terrifying problem that's infected US social culture. Our country has become so obsessed with greed and money that we've lost our moral compassion in all the industries of banking , manufacturing, entertainment, education, and government. It's become all about profit and making money for stock holders at the cost of American jobs being lost and losing our dominance in the education system, etc..

Soooooooooooooooo.....

You want to make TV better. Vote out every joker that is currently in any US political office. And I mean every... single... one. I don't care about Republican or Democrat. The smoke and mirrors that they are of any significant difference is generated by the same people who own 90% of the sources in this country. And oddly, note sarcasm, these are the same people who make the content I'm talking about.

If people were well educated and well informed, nobody and I mean nobody would watch the shit that's on TV today, vote for the extremely unqualified politician running for office, play the redundant unoriginal video game, or allow our government start meaningless wars for the profit and exploitation of a finite resource. They want obedient workers, people who lack critical thinking and question their motives. They want people to be just smart enough to run the machines and do the paper work, but dumb enough to passively accept the shitty jobs with low pay and appreciate it.

Always reminds of the wisdom of George Carlin when he said it's just a freak show and everybody is invited, only we (Americans) have a front row seat.....

TLDR: I'm just mad my 49'ers lost....
 
So stop voting for the people that let these companies do what you are complaining about. Otherwise, stop crying about it.
 
If you check alexa.com the say that hbo.com gets 33% of the visits from search engines and I am willing to bet that google produces is 25% of that 33%.

copied from alexa.com
"Hbo.com is ranked #9,038 in the world according to the three-month Alexa traffic rankings. The fraction of visits to this site referred by search engines is about 33%. It has attained a traffic rank of 2,687 among users in the US, where we estimate that 59% of its audience is located. Compared with all internet users, the site appeals more to Caucasians; its visitors also tend to consist of childless, moderately educated, higher-income women browsing from school and home. Hbo.com has been online for at least seventeen years"
 
Eisenblut said:
So stop voting for the people that let these companies do what you are complaining about. Otherwise, stop crying about it.
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The sad reality is my friend, the voting system is rigged and our votes don't matter. So many people are uneducated and under informed and they far out number the critical thinkers in this country. Those are the people who naively vote thinking their politician speaks for them when in reality he's just trying to get re-elected and make millions in office while there. The same people who watch American Idol and cable news and call that journalism. My only mistake was neglecting to mention why I don't vote anymore because it's difficult limiting a topic to one simple discussion without mentioning the important factors that contribute to said topic. But if all you took from my post was me whining, then it's possible you need be more open minded on things.

I think you mistakenly view my cynicism (crying as you put it) for simple soap box ranting. Truth is, most of what I said resonates with a lot of people in this country, but don't take my word for it, listen to what my friend Google has to say about all this.

But if I'm wrong and everything I said is ridiculous and irrelevant, then let me ask you this Charles Xavier: if Politicians are supposed to represent the best of what we can come up with as a society; who come from American families, American homes, American schools and churches, and are elected by American citizens. Then that's the best we can do? The best we have to offer? So maybe it's not the Politicians who suck. Maybe it's the public who suck? Maybe it's you who suck?

I bet you're one of those people who tell others that if you don't vote you can't complain. Because where is the logic in that. if you vote and you elect dishonest and incompetent fools who fuck everything up, well you were responsible for everything they've done.... Whereas I--- who did not vote and am not responsible in no way shape or form for what these people have done, so I have every right to complain as much as I want about the mess you created that I had nothing to do with.

But because my train of thought isn't on the same wave length as yours, I have absolutely no credibility and value to your way of thinking anyway right? Because I'm sure after the next election eeeeeeeeeeeeeverything is gonna immediately improve and get instantly better. Difference between you and me at the end of the election day, I'll have something to show for it....
 
Shotglass01 said:
I wish, oh so wish, Google, and others, would collectively ban together and charge say fifty cents for every takedown request.
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Wouldn't that be akin to extortion though? We are going to allow this link that you've sworn is infringing on your intellectual property and basically giving away goods people might otherwise pay for -- for free and we won't remove this link and continue to allow people to pirate 'unless' you pay us 50 cents.

The real would equivilent would probably be something akin to 'Yeah sure, there's a store in our outlet mall that sole purpose is selling cheap-chinese knockoffs and infringes on your patent and design rights which sells no legitimate products. You want them closed? Sure, that'll be $500.00 to fulfill that request otherwise I'm going to let them continue to sell knockoff goods'.
 
WBurchnall said:
Wouldn't that be akin to extortion though? We are going to allow this link that you've sworn is infringing on your intellectual property and basically giving away goods people might otherwise pay for -- for free and we won't remove this link and continue to allow people to pirate 'unless' you pay us 50 cents.

The real would equivilent would probably be something akin to 'Yeah sure, there's a store in our outlet mall that sole purpose is selling cheap-chinese knockoffs and infringes on your patent and design rights which sells no legitimate products. You want them closed? Sure, that'll be $500.00 to fulfill that request otherwise I'm going to let them continue to sell knockoff goods'.
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I agree, so that is why the charge should apply to false positives. If HBO wants HBO.com blocked, google complies, and when HBO complains Google can hit them with a re-instatement fee. It isn't extortion because they are reversing an action they were lawfully forced to take at HBO's request. This way Google is compensated for the massive undertaking DMCA compliance is, and HBO (here a proxy for any outfit) has to be more meticulous in it's use of DMCA takedowns. This would stop overzealous takedowns that limit and infringe on free speech.

As it stands If I make a youtube video that is a just me complaining about HBO, they can DMCA takedown that bad boy and limit my free speech with no recourse on my end.

The DMCA takedown is a POWERFUL tool that has been used to silence free speech in many instances (such as mega and megavideo) and that is dangerous. I "false positive" fee is direly needed to ensure rights holders do not abuse it.
 
Ski said:
The sad reality is my friend, the voting system is rigged and our votes don't matter. So many people are uneducated and under informed and they far out number the critical thinkers in this country. Those are the people who naively vote thinking their politician speaks for them when in reality he's just trying to get re-elected and make millions in office while there. The same people who watch American Idol and cable news and call that journalism. My only mistake was neglecting to mention why I don't vote anymore because it's difficult limiting a topic to one simple discussion without mentioning the important factors that contribute to said topic. But if all you took from my post was me whining, then it's possible you need be more open minded on things.

I think you mistakenly view my cynicism (crying as you put it) for simple soap box ranting. Truth is, most of what I said resonates with a lot of people in this country, but don't take my word for it, listen to what my friend Google has to say about all this.

But if I'm wrong and everything I said is ridiculous and irrelevant, then let me ask you this Charles Xavier: if Politicians are supposed to represent the best of what we can come up with as a society; who come from American families, American homes, American schools and churches, and are elected by American citizens. Then that's the best we can do? The best we have to offer? So maybe it's not the Politicians who suck. Maybe it's the public who suck? Maybe it's you who suck?

I bet you're one of those people who tell others that if you don't vote you can't complain. Because where is the logic in that. if you vote and you elect dishonest and incompetent fools who fuck everything up, well you were responsible for everything they've done.... Whereas I--- who did not vote and am not responsible in no way shape or form for what these people have done, so I have every right to complain as much as I want about the mess you created that I had nothing to do with.

But because my train of thought isn't on the same wave length as yours, I have absolutely no credibility and value to your way of thinking anyway right? Because I'm sure after the next election eeeeeeeeeeeeeverything is gonna immediately improve and get instantly better. Difference between you and me at the end of the election day, I'll have something to show for it....
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It was more sarcasm than anything. I know full well that even if you vote someone in that says that they are for this or that, there is zero guarantee that they will do just that. There is no accountability for them. Perhaps we should start using their campaigning as a verbal contract and if they break that, then they are fired and banned from the office.
 
Shotglass01 said:
I wish, oh so wish, Google, and others, would collectively ban together and charge say fifty cents for every takedown request.
Click to expand...

Every request would be going overboard but I could see charging for any that are it's decided are frivolous.
 
While Google might be obligated to honor the takedown request, it surely could charge a fee to any company that requests an item to be relisted. Additionally, for every company that is able to prove the takedown was illegitimate, there should be a stiff penalty to the requester, as that would be anti-competitive practices.
 
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