Google touts progress in fight against piracy
San Francisco, Nov 7: Google said Wednesday it is making strides in helping internet users legitimately get songs, films and apps while choking off revenue to websites with stolen digital content.
A 64-page report released by Google claimed progress in the war on piracy, but also noted a new battlefront in the form of "add-on" software that can be installed on legitimate open-source media players such as the Kodi box to illicitly stream copyrighted content.
"Combating illegal streaming on open-source media players like the Kodi box shows both the challenge and the importance of a balanced approach in the fight against piracy," Google said in the report.
"Pirates have created add-ons to enable Kodi boxes to access infringing works."
Set-top boxes with suspicious add-ons are removed from Google Shopping, while apps with pre-installed "Kodi add-ons" giving access to pirate sites are removed from the Play Store, according to the internet firm.
The report cited a 2018 global study released by The Institute for Information Law that found the percentage of internet users who engage in piracy has been falling, while spending on legal content is rising.
"Successfully decreasing incidents of copyright infringement has required providing more and better legitimate alternatives to infringing content, as well as more effective tools for combating piracy," Google said.
Google boasted that it has been generating more money for those who create or own digital content while strengthening its arsenal and efforts to fight piracy.
A YouTube "Content ID" tool creates digital fingerprints of sorts of copyrighted content and then automatically detects it online, allowing owners to have it removed or monetized.
Websites involved in piracy are "demoted" in search results and cut off from Google's online ad platform, according to the report.
"One of the most effective ways to combat rogue sites that specialize in online piracy is to cut off their money supply," Google said.
Since 2012, Google has terminated more than 13,000 AdSense accounts and ejected more than 100,000 sites from its AdSense program for violations of policy on copyrighted material, according to the report.
Meanwhile, a "Google Play" online shop for digital content bans apps that "infringe copyright, encourage illegal streaming, or attempt to deceive users by impersonating other apps."
Google also told of taking aim at copyright-infringing ads with "considerable" resources. The California-based tech giant said that last year it rejected more than 10 million ads suspected of infringing copyrights or linking to websites that did.
According to the report, Google-owned YouTube paid more than USD 1.8 billion to the music industry from October 2017 to September 2018.
Digital video revenues are expected to soar from USD 64 billion last year to USD 119 billion by the year 2022, while global music streaming revenues more than doubled from 2015 to 2017, according to the report.
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Venkatesh Prasad elected KSCA president, Sujith Somasundar is new vice-president
Bengaluru (PTI): Former India pacer Venkatesh Prasad was on Sunday elected as the new president of the troubled Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA).
In the polls, Prasad, a former vice-president of the association, went ahead of veteran sports administrator KN Shanth Kumar 749-558 as a total of 1307 members voted.
Prasad now will have the onerous task of bringing top-flight cricket back to the state, which got sidelined after the stampede near the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on June 4 in which 11 Royal Challengers Bengaluru fans were killed.
Both Prasad and Shanth Kumar, Director of The Printers (Mysore) Private Ltd and one of the Directors on the PTI Board, had vowed to take necessary steps to revive cricket in the state, and it was their respective panel's major poll pitch.
Former India batter Sujith Somasundar won the election to the post of vice-president ahead of D. Vinod Shivappa 719-588.
Somasundar had stepped down from the post of Education Head at the BCCI Centre of Excellence recently to contest in the KSCA polls.
BN Madhukar is the new KSCA treasurer after winning the election 736-571 ahead of MS Vinay. Experienced administrator Santosh Menon returned to the association fold as its new secretary after getting the better of ES Jairam 675-632.
Jairam had resigned from the post of KSCA secretary after 11 fans were killed and several injured in the stampede near the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, taking the moral responsibility for the tragic turn of events.
The Prasad-led panel, which had the open backing of former India players Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath, hence grabbed four key posts in the polls which were held at the Chinnaswamy Stadium between 10am and 5 pm.
“First and foremost, this is a victory for the sport of cricket. Secondly, this is a victory for all the members who wanted a change, all the people who wanted international cricket to come back to the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium. This is a victory for all stakeholders — the cricket fans,” Prasad told reporters after becoming president.
The Brijesh Patel-backed camp saw BK Ravi from its list winning the race to the post of joint secretary 669-638 ahead of AV Shashidhara.
Former women’s cricketer Kalpana Venkatachar (764) and former Karnataka wicketkeeper batter Avinash Vaidya (691), who contested from Prasad's panel, were elected as members from the Bangalore Zone along with Aashish Amarlall (703).
