Take down requests against pirated content continues to grow exponentially.
Hollywood has been playing whack-a-mole with pirates for as long as we can remember, but the war continues to rage on with numbers that simply defy explanation. According to Google’s transparency report, 51,395,353 links to infringing websites were removed from the indexer this year, and it is continuing to grow at an exponential rate. Last week alone Google received a mind boggling 3,502,345 take down requests. This represents a 15x increase over what they received in January.
According to the report, the RIAA is by far the most active sender , but just about every major copyright holder shows up somewhere on the list. Interestingly enough however, the notorious Pirate Bay only had just over half a million links removed, putting them in 16th place. Considering how publically they’ve been pursued over the last several years, this is a bit surprising.
Google also expressed concerns with the increasing number of false positives, leading to the removal of vast amounts of legitimate content. “As policymakers evaluate how effective copyright laws are, they need to consider the collateral impact copyright regulation has on the flow of information online,†Google’s Legal Director Fred Von Lohmann said earlier this month.
The MPAA defended itself by using the numbers to remind the public just how much pirated content they have to deal with online. “There is a staggering amount of copyright infringement taking place every day online and much of it is facilitated by Google, as their own data shows,†the MPAA noted a few weeks ago. “We couldn’t agree more with Google that this data shows that our current system is not working â€" for creators, or for Google. But we can’t lose sight of the fact that it also confirms the important role that Google has to play in helping curb the theft of creative works while protecting an Internet that works for everyone,†the Hollywood group added.
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