Anti-Piracy outfits and world governments have been making huge strides in taking down some of the internet’s biggest pirating networks, but it doesn’t seem like the world’s copyright-holders have noticed. According to TorrentFreak, Google still gets loads of DMCA takedown requests for famously deceased file-sharing sites like MegaUpload, Demonoid, and BTJunkie from some of the world’s largest entertainment companies.
In recent months, Google has started taking measures to reduce the likelihood that it directs users to copyright-infringing sites, including moving flagged sites down in their search results, and posting a transparency report showing all of requests they receive on a regular basis. Since putting out the transparency report, the number DMCA takedown requests sent to Google has skyrocketed, going up as much as 1,000 percent year-over-year.
So why are companies like Sony, Microsoft, EMI, and Warner Bros. sending useless DMCA requests for inactive sites? Because the process is automated, of course. Since no one has bothered to check and/or update whatever software generates DMCA requests, it behaves as if the sites are still alive and infringing. Google gets spammed with requests like these on a daily basis: No wonder their transparency reports are so long!
It must be heart-wrenching for Google to find out that, after all the extra work it’s been dong, the copyright-holders haven’t been putting in the same effort. I know it’s not easy to feel bad for a giant corporation that probably knows everything about you, but you’ve got to admit that this is a pretty crappy way to treat someone who’s supposed to be helping you out.
(via TorrentFreak, image credit; Julie Falk)
- Google really does get a LOT of DMCA requests.
- Ubisoft thinks everything should just be free-to-play
- Remember that time they raided Kim Dotcom’s mansion?
