[dvd-discuss]DMCA and the Church Of Scientology

["Michael A Rolenz" <Michael.A.Rolenz(at)aero.org>]

http://www.vnunet.com/Features/1130919

Google hit by a case of xenu-phobia
             By Ben Tudor  [16-04-2002]
             Google bombing - a technique for
             boosting a site's popularity with the
             Google search engine - has hit the news,
             but could it hit Google's famed
             impartiality as well?

             The highly-respected search engine was
             forced by the Church of Scientology to
             remove sites after xenu.net was ranked
             first after a search on 'scientology'.

             What started out as an innocent enough
             prank has steamrollered into a full-on
             human rights debacle. The human rights
             issue has little to do with the original
             practice and more to do with the US
             Digitial Millennium Copyright Act.

             But why should network managers care?
             It depends on two things: the importance
             businesses set on being found through
             search engines, and the use of them
             within enterprises.

             Tony Lock, a senior analyst at Bloor
             Research, explained that some search
             engines allowed site promotion for
             commercial benefit, but warned that if
             companies beef up their search
             appearance with inappropriate
             meta-tags, they could face legal threats
             and negative publicity.

             "There are examples of companies that
             put the name of their rival in their
             meta-tags. This led to a flood of legal
             letters and the tags were removed before
             it came to court," he said.

             Google is and was a breath of fresh air
             among search engines. It ranks sites by
             popularity rather than the amount of
             money paid by site owners.

             It's purity of function made it an
             excellent tool for finding the exact site
             you were looking for.

             But this strength has made Google a
             target, according to David Woods, a
             research director at Ovum. "Google has
             moved the goalposts a bit," he said.
             "Part of the penalty of that has been that
             it is now attractive to people who want
             to get a higher ranking. It's just taken a
             while for people to work out how to
             attack it successfully."

             Google bombing can improve a site's
             ranking artificially. An IT vendor - or
             any other business, for that matter -
             could make sure that key phrases would
             return its site at the top of the rankings.
             This can distort Google's key strength -
             impartiality.

             By linking in the same way across many
             sites, it is possible to artificially boost
             the rankings of the target site when
             linked to certain keywords.

             The recent spat with the Church of
             Scientology and xenu.net is a good
             example of this.

             Weblogs linked to xenu.net with the
             word 'Scientology', which boosted the
             site's rankings in Google to the extent it
             ranked first in Google's search results,
             over and above sites owned by the
             Church.

             "It is difficult to believe the Church of
             Scientology got such a large array of
             meta-tags, without a bit of politics or
             manipulation going on," commented
             Lock.

             Google bombing has been treated as
             harmless fun over the past few weeks.
             But as the stakes get higher, things could
             well get uglier. Citing the DMCA, the
             Church of Scientology has already
             forced Google into delisting links to
             certain parts of xenu.net.

             KEY POINTS

                 Most popular and independent
                 search engine is not infallable
                 Digital Millennium Copyright Act
                 being levered
                 Anti Church of Scientology website
                 blamed