Clica aquí para español (Spanish)
On Saturday, we confirmed that www.rojadirecta.es was no longer appearing in Google’s search results. The company owner of the popular search engine had received a complaint related to the DMCA and, because of this, eliminated the homepage for rojadirecta.es from its search results. Google did not provide us with a copy of the complaint (or we simply did not receive it) so we decided to get in contact with Chilling Effects, who had processed the complaint that Google sent them very quickly. Once the complaint became available on the Chilling Effects web site, we discovered that it was made by the Major League Baseball.
Oddly enough, the complaint was not related to Google’s search engine. In fact, it was sent to Google’s advertising program, Adsense. For these reasons, it seems as though Google eliminated rojadirecta.es from its search results even though this was not what MLB had requested, since their intentions were apparently to simply eliminate Rojadirecta from the Adsense advertising program.
This apparent mistake on Google’s part was perhaps the result of the following false statements made by MLB:
“a Google Adsense partner, http://www.rojadirecta.es”
Rojadirecta does not participate in Google’s Adsense program so it is impossible to eliminate it from that program. Moreover, Rojadirecta does not even publish banners or contextual ads.
“The Website streams live copyrighted MLB Telecasts”
Not only does Rojadirecta not transmit the aforementioned content, but it does not directly transmit any other type of audio or video content. Rojadirecta is simply an index of sporting events available on the Internet and not a provider of audio and video content.
Incidentally, we believe this is not the first error of this kind made by Google that we’ve had to deal with. In 2007 our entire rojadirecta.com domain was blocked because of a complaint regarding the specific http://www.rojadirecta.com address (something which does not coincide with Google’s instructions for DMCA-related complaints in which it asks for conflicting keywords and their corresponding list of addresses). Something similar happened to The Pirate Bay in 2009 though Google was quick to correct the error. That isn’t the case here however, seeing as this domain has been completely banned for 4 years with hundreds (actually, millions) of search results deleted (e.g. site:rojadirecta.com or, site:forum.rojadirecta.com).
Judging by the screenshot sent to Google by MLB, it seems likely that MLB was unaware of the concept of redirection through frames. Links to channels from Rojadirecta.es use the address: http://www.rojadirecta.es/goto/…, which means that the address bar continues to show our URL. For instance, http://rojadirecta.es/goto/google.com loads google.com, while http://www.rojadirecta.es/goto/twitter.com/rojadirecta loads our Twitter page. For this reason, the Google advertising that was seen by MLB probably appeared on some page linked from Rojadirecta.
In any case, as it refers to Google, it is fair to say that we do not believe that they have acted in bad faith.
Regarding MLB, we believe that the report sent to Google Adsense was not sent in bad faith either. Apparently, they do not have anything to gain from reporting a website to an advertising program when the site does not participate in it. Thus, it would seem obvious that this was only a mistake, as long as the responsible party did not know that redirection by frames was involved. Regardless, alleging that Rojadirecta transmits such contents is a very serious matter. In fact, it is a rather serious problem that a professional whose responsibility is to protect copyright on audio and video content found on the Internet cannot distinguish between sites that host and transmit content and sites that simply index other pages or streams. Furthermore, if they were aware that Rojadirecta does not transmit content but used the complaint to force Google to act in their interests, the problem is a much more serious one indeed.
Fortunately, Google’s algorithm replaced the deleted address with a Rojadirecta IP address. Therefore, it has at least always continued to appear among the first search results for “rojadirecta”.
Tags: censorship, copyright, DMCA, freedom of speech, Google, Major League Baseball, MLB, Rojadirecta
ROJADIRECTA (Blog) 
April 22, 2011 at 17:20 |
[…] (Blog) Comments from the world's biggest sports streams index Google and MLB’s mistakes result in the removal of rojadirecta.es from the search engine […]
April 23, 2011 at 07:55 |
[…] a héten aztán ismét problémába futott az oldal. Egy DMCA bejelentés nyomán – amit az MLB – küldött, a Google […]
April 23, 2011 at 17:42 |
Go Go RojaDirecta
April 28, 2011 at 21:06 |
Great work, Rojadirecta! Never back down.
April 30, 2011 at 20:41 |
Great Jobb ROJADIRECT keep going guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
April 30, 2011 at 22:53 |
I’ve noticed that you do not include any links to MLB Texas Rangers games. Is there a reason? Do you expect to do this at a later date?
Also, I tried to send an email to you recently using the email address you provide under contacts and it came back underliverable. Has someone possibly blocked your email address also (assuming this is possible). I sent it via hotmail, which is a microsoft email.
Thanks,
David
May 7, 2011 at 07:41 |
if i have a billion dollars, i’ll support you!
May 11, 2011 at 13:02 |
These styles are truly neat. I prefer it post Keep it up dude 🙂
May 23, 2011 at 23:31 |
lol, sorry but u guys got OWNED!
thing is, you are like a car dealer that helps move stolen car parts between thieves. Car dealer is not stealing anything, but he is aiding illegal activity – which streaming sites like rojadirecta.org also does. That is why google did what they did.
just my two cents on why google did what they did
May 24, 2011 at 00:34 |
Nothing has been stolen when data is streamed over a digital connection. 1’s and 0’s are being switched in memory, no property is being moved or changing hands. How can you call it theft?
Furthermore, the car dealer analogy doesn’t work in the case of torrents because RD never possesses, even for a split second, any of the data being transferred. It’s more like a park where people go to find suppliers for what they want… can you blame the park?
Abuse of power is nothing new but it is still loathsome. Subversion is more than called for, these companies should be fought and their greedy cash-founded authority undermined at every opportunity.
May 30, 2011 at 21:48 |
Keep going strong guys. To everybody: start boycoting google.
Thanks
May 31, 2011 at 15:03 |
where can I find streaming of this game of basketball “trapani-Ostuni”
July 4, 2011 at 12:57 |
Why the reference to Macedonia as “Yugoslav Republic” on the site? Yugoslavia is gone, did you get threats from Greece that they would take your site down – unless there was some quid pro quo?
July 4, 2011 at 13:37 |
We are just using the official name of the team in the tournament: http://www.eurohandball.com/beach/women/2011/teams/000616/Fyr+Macedonia. Anyway this post is not related with that, for unrelated questions please contact us here: http://rojadirecta.es/contactar/
August 1, 2011 at 05:38 |
Man, you sure are dumb.
Take a look around you before you insult people and their motives.
They had the FIFA draw this week and when their name was drawn it was FYR Macedonia.
Guess what the FYR means?
FYROM is the official name for Macedonia internationally.
September 8, 2012 at 17:24 |
in your face….. (smiling and moving my head as a “nonono” …)
Viva la Libertad, hijos de…Norte America xD