By John P. Mello Jr. | PC World | 30 December 12
Google, the Internet search leader, removed more than 50 million links from search results this year for allegedly infringing the intellectual property of copyright holders.
According to an analysis of Google's weekly "transparency reports" performed by TorrentFreak editor ErnestoVan Der Sar, 51.5 million links to web pages allegedly infringing on copyrighted material were removed from search results in 2012.
"Nearly all of these web pages are no longer showing up in Google's search results," Van Der Sar reported.
Google, like any other website on the Internet, is obliged by federal law -- namely, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act -- to take down content when it receives a DCMA request from a copyright holder.
Van Der Sar noted that DCMA takedown activity has been increasing throughout the year, hitting a high point last week when Google received 3.5 million requests.
Much of that takedown activity is being fueled by automated systems used by large copyright holders. Those systems can be wildly inaccurate, which can lead to lawsuits.
For example, an online storage service called Hotfile sued Warner Bros. Entertainment after that company's automated system
flooded Hotfile with thousands of DCMA takedown requests for material Warner had no rights to.
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/internet/3418005/google-spiked-50m-searches-in-2012/?olo=rss
