The company’s News and Image search services have come under fire of late from mainstream media outlets as well as adult entertainment brand Perfect 10 for profiting off of the intellectual property of others.
The blog entry, which was posted by Google Vice President in charge of Content Partnerships David Eun, outlined three principles for the company’s copyright policy.
In bullet-point form, Eun wrote:
Calling Google just one of many companies that serves to break down the barrier between people and information, Eun said the search engine democratizes both the Internet and human knowledge.
Many believe that Google issued the post clarifying its copyright policy in light of a recent Belgian court ruling that barred the company from including material from several national newspapers in its Google News service.
A case brought by Perfect 10 accusing Google Image of copyright infringement is currently awaiting review by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
“Protecting content owners’ rights, respecting their wishes, helping to reward them for their creative endeavors — these are the primary principles that guide Google’s approach,” Eun said. “We believe it’s the best way to make the world’s information universally accessible and useful.”
If the post was meant to placate critics of Google’s copyright policy, it may have failed.
“While Google declares ‘we respect copyright,’ it does not put forth a single way that it respects copyright,” ZDNet blogger Donna Bogatin said.
Bogatin’s words echoed the sentiment of other bloggers, who doubted the authenticity of Google’s claims.