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Vince Bucci/Getty ImagesGoogle advertising exec Susan Wojcicki calls William Morris Endeavor co-CEO Ari Emanuel “misinformed” in his opinion that the tech company isn’t doing enough to help Hollywood combat online piracy.
Speaking at the AllThingsD-organized D10 conference earlier this week, Emanuel did not mince words as he took Google and Silicon Valley at large to task on the issue, saying: “We need Northern California to figure out how to keep our intellectual property from being stolen.”
Entertainment industry writer-creators like Aaron Sorkin and Larry David spend a lot of time developing content, he noted, and tech companies “need to…help us protect that stuff.”
Emanuel said Google’s position on piracy is especially important, and raised concerns that the company might delay action due to a reluctance to negotiate post-SOPA strategies. He called on Google to filter out international piracy to help cut down on content theft — arguing that the company also blocks child pornography.
“I think he was misinformed, very misinformed,” Wojcicki said Thursday at the D10 conference. “We do not want to be building a business based on piracy.”
While child pornography is easily spotted, “When I see content, I don’t know if you own the copyright,” she said.
Google funneled $30 million into the creation of a system to monitor YouTube content for copyright violations, and the company removes 1 million-plus Internet URLs each month, Wojcicki said, noting Emanuel’s collaboration with YouTube on launching channels for celebrities such as Tyler Perry.
“This is not a technical problem, this is much more of a business issue,” she said.
