Opinions

Is Orkut Allowing Software Piracy?

deelip

I recently came across an appalling community on Orkut, one of the Web 2.0 networking sites. The description of the community goes as follows:

“Didnt you always want a Software without paying for it.Just post a request and you would get a download link for the full version.Anonymous posts allowed for protection of members.

If downloaded, you can reply your comments about the link and/or the software so that other downloaders can read your reviews.

Please focus only on Full version Softwares Downloads and Requests in this community.No mp3, no movies, no games.

Disclaimer: You are solely responsible for your acts based on information provided in this community. Owner of this community would not be responsible for any of your conduct. If you do not accept this condition, DO NOT JOIN.
Your interest is my motivation.

DO NOT SEND REQUEST TO MODERATORS THEY WON’T BE ANSWERED.”

This community has 5,620 members and counting, thanks to Orkut. Orkut’s Terms of Service reads:

“We may, but shall have no obligation to, remove Materials that they determine in our sole discretion are unlawful, fraudulent, threatening, libelous, defamatory, obscene or otherwise objectionable, or infringes or violates any party’s intellectual property or other proprietary rights”

This community was started 8 months ago and if the people at Orkut incharge of monitoring illegal content were doing their job, it should have been shut down long ago. But one look at the community forum tell you that this community has “served” its members well.

There are many sites where you can find cracks for all kinds of software. I can understand that. Yes, I can. These sites are hosted in countries which have virtually no IP laws or have laws which cannot be enforced. But this is Orkut, a Google company operating from the US. Isn’t someone responsible at all?

I have notified Orkut regarding this community using their “Report Abuse” tool. Let’s see if anything happens. I seriously doubt that nobody has reported this community already in the past 8 months.

Oh, and by the way, there is another community started by the same guy almost a year ago. This one has 5,256 members and specializes in gaming software.