Google processes 2M takedown notices a day

The requests to remove links to pirated content have increased exponentially over the past few years.

In 2008 a paper published by Virginia Journal of Law and Technology found Google was issuing an average of 62 DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) notices per year. Now, data published on Google’s real-time Transparency Report, shows takedown notices have now reached over 2 million per day, or over 100,000 links per hour.

Incredibly, as pointed out by Torrentfreak, these notices to remove alleged pirated content have more than doubled when compared to data from this time last year, and quadrupled in comparison to 2014.

In October 2014 Google announced an update to its search algorithm as part of its How Google Fights Piracy report. The algorithm downranks sites for which it receives a large number of valid DMCA notices.

However, in 2015 Google was asked to remove around 8 million links per week, in 2016 that’s now increased to 19 million per week. 

The tech giant has said the increase in DMCA notices are a sign that its process is working. It is possible; the increase in DMCA takedown notices doesn’t necessarily mean there are more pirates than ever before, or that copyright holders are being more aggressive, it could mean Google’s efforts to teach organisations about the strategies of SED (Search Engine De-Optimisation) – aka the techniques to deactivate potential site impediments – are working. 

The Top 10 main offenders to host copyright infringing material in the past month are:

The website musicaonline2016.com receives an average of 16 takedown requests per week for an average of 127,870 URLs on the site.

The top organisations requesting takedowns include the BPI (British Recorded Music Industry) and the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), both of which represent the label sector in the UK and US, respectively.

BPI is also the top copyright owner of the last year with almost 70 million links belonging to its content creators.

Google has said in the past that the key to reducing piracy is a combination of price, convenience, and inventory.

“Piracy thrives when consumer demand goes unmet by legitimate supply,” it said in its How Google Fights Piracy report. “[…] Online services like Google Play, Spotify, Netflix, and iTunes have demonstrated that the most effective way to combat piracy on the web is to offer attractive legal alternatives to consumers.”