[lukesandberg]

The bigger problem would be abuse. Google couldn't verify that you actually own what you say you do. So people could easily spam the system to get content they don't like removed. This is currently a problem with the DMCA, but at least with the DMCA there is legal recourse for bad faith requests. The worst punishment that could be done with your proposed system would be account cancellation, which would not be a deterrent.

[ezequiel-garzon]

Google couldn't verify that you actually own what you say you do.

OK, but then Google already has that problem now. If they receive a DMCA notice against your pre-registered content they must act. But I'm sure their algorithms would prove that pre-registered content that is not available elsewhere to be extremely reliable. Keep in mind that Google's index probably has basically everything that is out there.

I believe a downside to my proposal is that, if it went into effect, honest publishers would in essence be forced to pre-register, just to be safe. I can imagine some would complain about that.

[lukesandberg]

But with the current laws verification of ownership is not Googles responsibility (nor should it be). If google recieves a valid DMCA it has to act on it. Honestly I wouldn't want a private company to be the arbiter of copyright ownership on the internet. Many copyright issues are very complicated and it would be an undue burden (not to mention against the public good) to have a private part control it.

The DMCA has issues but at least disputes end up in court, how do you think an ownership dispute would play out if private companies were in charge of making decisions.

[ezequiel-garzon]

Thanks for your answer, and sorry for my late thoughts... I understand your position, and surely there would be many challenges, but if publishers adopted this proposed API, Google's results would be fairer and, potentially, their crawling could become more efficient (unnecessary?). Clearly they would carry the burden of providing a way to report malicious registration... but again, the moment badguy.example.com claims to host original content and it receives 20+ complaints... it's game over for that domain!

With regard to the notion of a private company controlling copyright issues, I'm a first believer that Google, big as it is, is not the Internet. An honest effort to clean up their index should not be confused with an attempt to censor anything. Taking the flip side: prove (via a simple API) that your content is indeed original, and then you'll be welcome in our index. Needless to say, only a dominant industry leader could take such a bold attitude.