{"id":712,"date":"2007-03-06T09:11:38","date_gmt":"2007-03-06T16:11:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.roughtype.com\/wp\/?p=712"},"modified":"2007-03-06T09:11:38","modified_gmt":"2007-03-06T16:11:38","slug":"microsoft_wags","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.roughtype.com\/?p=712","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft wags finger at Google"},"content":{"rendered":"

Google, on the defensive over its YouTube unit’s inability to clamp down on video piracy, today faces the ultimate indignity: being lectured about ethics by its arch nemesis, Microsoft. In a blistering op-ed<\/a> in the Financial Times, Microsoft lawyer Thomas Rubin blasts Google for being a cultural bully and trying to run roughshod over copyright owners. Regarding Google Book Search, Rubin writes,<\/p>\n

\n

Google has taken a unilateralist approach by contending that it is entitled to grab books off library shelves and copy them wholesale without obtaining the permission of the publishers and authors who own the copyright in those works … This project may well bring significant commercial advantage to Google. By contrast, [copyright owners] could gain little or nothing from Google’s plan.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Regarding YouTube, Rubin asserts that “nearly every major movie and television company … has expressed deep concern over the large number of infringing videos available on Google’s YouTube website. Google simply denies responsibility and appears to be trying wherever possible to skirt copyright law’s boundaries.”<\/p>\n

In contrast to Google’s alleged unilateralism, Rubin claims that Microsoft is taking a “collaborative” approach, working in “an open and transparent manner with content owners to minimize infringement, while at the same time licensing and offering a wide range of high-quality content that consumers can reliably locate and enjoy.”<\/p>\n

Rubin’s article is just a preview of a broadside he will launch against Google in a speech today before the American Association of Publishers in New York. In that talk, according<\/a> to the FT, Rubin will say that Google “systematically violates copyright, deprives authors and publishers of an important avenue for monetizing their works and, in doing so, undermines incentives to create.”<\/p>\n

While Rubin’s accusations are nothing new – he’s basically repeating back to the publishers their own oft-made charges against Google – the coordinated attack is nonetheless an audacious PR move by Microsoft. The company’s trying to swap hats with its young rival, stealing Google’s white hat while placing the black hat that it has worn so long on Google’s head. No doubt, Google will launch a rhetorical counterattack, but that’s surely part of Microsoft’s plan. In a mud fight over copyright with Microsoft, Google can only be the loser.<\/p>\n

UPDATE: Microsoft has released the full text of Rubin’s speech<\/a>. In addition to criticizing Google Book Search and YouTube, Rubin says that “Microsoft was surprised to learn recently that Google employees have actively encouraged advertisers to build advertising programs around key words referring to pirated software, including pirated Microsoft software. And we weren\u2019t the only victims \u2013 Google also encouraged the use of keywords and advertising text referring to illegal copies of music and movies.” Sniffs Rubin, “These are not the actions of a company that has the interests of copyright owners as one of its priorities.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Google, on the defensive over its YouTube unit’s inability to clamp down on video piracy, today faces the ultimate indignity: being lectured about ethics by its arch nemesis, Microsoft. In a blistering op-ed in the Financial Times, Microsoft lawyer Thomas Rubin blasts Google for being a cultural bully and trying to run roughshod over copyright […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.roughtype.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.roughtype.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.roughtype.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.roughtype.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.roughtype.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.roughtype.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.roughtype.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.roughtype.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.roughtype.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}