google banning sites whos using data from odp dmoz

There is a new study that says Google is “massively” banning sites that use any DMOZ data. I know many people would say “Good! Who needs another copy of some information that you can already get at the Open Directory web site”, but it seems to me that there are some fundamental issues of fairness and deception here.

Google not only runs their own copy of the entire Open Directory but they index their own copy in Google Search.

Neither Google nor DMOZ advise webmasters that running any DMOZ data on your site is very likely to get your entire site banned. DMOZ actively encourages sites to use DMOZ data. They even encourage webmasters to use free software for producing grossly duplicative and redundant “clones” of the entire 620,000 page Open Directory. I can understand how that could be intensely irritating to search engines.

The whole idea and promise of the “Open” Directory Project was that the data was to be freely available for use by any web site. This is effectively a fraud if only Google and their friends can use “Open” Directory data without risking being banned by Google.

The 71,816 DMOZ editors are also being victimized. They were told that they were contributing to an “Open” Directory, not acting as unpaid editors for a $100 billion dollar company.

I think Google and DMOZ both need to be considerably more “open” about this issue to develop standards for allowable use of DMOZ data, if any. If there is no acceptable use by folks that are not Google friends or partners, that should be made clear.

Please send your views and suggetion.