What is their job? I thought it was as a search engine. So, let me ask -- when people steal blog content, what are their motives for doing so? Is it to deliver that content to you, the reader? Or is it to get Google hits? How well are they preserving links, illustrations, reader comments (which are a disaster a lot of places but not all of them), an archive of other work by the same author that may be of interest? How often are they slipping undesirable things (ads that lead to sites that offer malware, for instance) alongside the content they're stealing?
If Google wants to be the best search engine possible, returning the original result for an article relevant to the user's query is a better result than returning some second-hand copy littered with low-quality ad junk. And if that's not Google job, then let me know whose job it is and I'll start using them instead.
I don't know if you're being sarcastic, but it is illegal to sell stolen or fake merchandise in the United States. Anyone selling fake Rolexes is committing a crime and could also be sued.
Saying that Google is "selling" stolen content isn't that clear, though. Yes, they're selling ads on search results, but wouldn't they get the same ad revenue regardless of where those links pointed?
It's easier to make the case with AdSense, where Google literally profits directly from stolen content.
it is illegal to sell stolen or fake merchandise in the United States. Anyone selling fake Rolexes is committing a crime and could also be sued
Huh? Now I'm worried. Are you telling me that the Rolex watch I paid $30 for, that I bought from a street vendor near Times Square, might be fake? Oh no, the horror! /sarcasm
I don't think that Rolex is too worried about this. Nobody would mistake a $30 watch for a real Rolex. And, give it credit, my fake Rolex worked for a year or so. It probably just needs a new battery.
Besides, you can't sue a street vendor. They're what's known as "judgement proof".[1]
And as to police action against them, the de Blasio administration seems to have adopted a laissez-faire attitude about all this stuff. If they're willing to allow squeegee men to operate with impunity, they certainly won't care about novelty watches being peddled.