TorrentFreak notes this is a 100 percent increase in such requests over last year. Google is facing an onslaught of notices issued by companies and individuals under the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) that ask the search giant to remove links to websites allegedly hosting pirated content.
In the past month, 5,492 copyright owners requested over 65 million URLs be removed from Google’s search results. These were spread across 72,207 domains and reported by over 2,500 different organisations. A graph provided by Google shows how the number of requests has surged in the past year after gaining momentum from the start of 2013.
Graph showing the surge in piracy takedown requests sent to Google from 2011 to November 2015
Google
The statistics include multiple requests initiated against the same URL so the number of distinct URLs and domains reported will be less than Google’s figures indicate. The company says it includes duplicate reports because it allows for a more complete picture of the sheer volume of requests received, all of which have to be analysed and filtered.
Last year, Google’s search algorithms were revised so they exclude websites and domain names that begin to accumulate copyright infringement notices and takedown requests. The company is helping to make torrent sites and other distributors of illegal content less visible, rather than placing a blanket ban on domains found guilty of uploading pirated material.
Industry groups have called on Google to blacklist websites that acquire multiple allegations of engaging in piracy, preventing them from appearing in its search results at all. Google maintains that such an approach would be too draconian and doomed to eventual failure as people would continue to visit the sources from different search engines or with a direct link.
Issuing a takedown notice is still one of the principal methods used by copyright holders to protect their valuable content. Google is obliged to follow up all allegations of piracy that are submitted to it but does have the power to refuse a request if it finds the site is not offering content illegally. Between July and December 2011, 97% of search results specified in takedown requests were removed from its search results.
