Google fails to tackle piracy: Village Roadshow’s Graham Burke

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The co-chief executive of Village Roadshow has for the first time accused Google of failing to tackle illegal streaming, changing a pragmatic approach to working with the search giant to stop the problem.

Graham Burke said he had grown frustrated and impatient with Google efforts to stamp out rampant film and television piracy, singling out the company as a guilty party.

In an interview with The Australian, Mr Burke declared: “Google are not doing enough and could do a lot more”, noting that infringements are endemic despite official action to curb it.

The Australian found that Google’s search engine made it easy to find sites offering free downloads of movies and TV shows within a few clicks.

A search for “free streaming sites” yielded the names of piracy websites, and even suggested other searches a user could perform to find them.

YouTube, the video-sharing site owned by Google, produced results containing how-to-guides to illegal viewing that have been watched millions of times by users. A spokesman for Google said: “We take protecting creativity online seriously, and we’re doing more to help battle copyright-infringing activity than ever before. The best way to battle piracy is with better, more convenient, legitimate alternatives.” Nevertheless, Google did not comment on why it had not removed these results, and instead gave a link to a blog detailing the tech giant’s piracy initiatives that was published in July last year.

Mr Burke said he was shocked to discover how simple and uncomplicated it was to access illegal streams using Google’s services.

To test the strength of Google’s anti-piracy measures Mr Burke recently used the search engine at home to do his own analysis.

He found Christopher Nolan’s acclaimed blockbuster Dunkirk with no difficultly, and then ran into trouble when his computer was infected by a malware virus that paralysed the system and asked for his credit card details.

ASX-listed Village Roadshow has been the victim of many violations whereby internet users have illegally downloaded movies the company finances and distributes.

Released in 2015, Mad Max: Fury Road has now been illegally downloaded more than 3.5 million times. Recent Village Roadshow films also falling prey to piracy include King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, Collateral Beauty, Fist Fight, and Red Dog: True Blue.

“It’s killing the economics of the industry. If you look at Spain where the government did nothing and piracy is rampant, the entire home entertainment sector and production is in dire trouble,” he said. “In Australia, if we do not get piracy under control there will not be a business model to make local stories. There will not be a Lion or Red Dog. Many people have not known it’s illegal, and it’s a victimless crime. People lose their jobs and homes.” The producer of Nicole Kidman movie Lion and The King’s Speech, Emile Sherman, said piracy was a plague, putting thousands of local jobs at risk.

“Lion has been embraced by paying audiences all around the world. But millions of people have streamed or downloaded it from pirate websites without paying. While Lion drew on the best creative talent from across borders, it is at heart an Australia story,” he said. “These independent films are as much at risk from online piracy as studio blockbusters, by jeopardising investment in the already very risky business of film production. And, while many consumers don’t consider the impact of piracy when accessing films online without paying, they are now putting themselves at risk from the malware, ransomware and spyware that infests piracy sites.”

The film and TV industries claimed a victory last week after winning federal court approval to block 42 websites that provide pirated streams of Lion and other films. Village Roadshow won its legal proceedings against telco services, forcing them to block domain names.

It comes as an inquiry into the future of public interest journalism resumes today, with public hearings in Melbourne and Sydney.

On Tuesday, Google Australia and New Zealand managing director Jason Pellegrino, and head of public policy Ishtar Vij will front the committee. Among the issues raised at the hearings has been the way in which Google and other behemoths like Facebook take the work of journalists and exploit it to corner the market in online advertising. American author Jonathan Taplin in his new book, Move Fast and Break Things, estimated “piracy” costs its victims collectively an estimated £US40 billion ($50bn) a year.

Google is coming under intense regulatory pressure around the world over a long list of issues including its role in facilitating hate attacks, trolling, fake news, cyber-bullying, and secret communication by terrorists.

In Australia, the competition regulator is set to launch a probe into Google and Facebook’s impact on consumers and advertisers following pressure from senator Nick Xenophon.