DMCA requests quadruple in two years says Google

Google has been bombarded with DMCA takedown requests. The corporation has seen the volume of takedown notices from rights holders quadruple over the last two years. In 2016 alone, Google is estimated to sift through over a billion reported pirate links, many of which will be removed from its search listing.

In an attempt to keep people away from pirate sites, copyright holders are overloading Google with DMCA takedown requests.

Since 2011 Google has taken down over billion infringing links from its search index, and the two billion mark is only a few months away.

Torrentfreak reports, 5.1 million pirate URLs were reported to Google in the first couple days of June, 2014, a sum that risen to over 22 million a couple of years later.

The weekly amounts vary but the graph down the page demonstrates the ascending pattern. If the current trend remains then Google is predicted to process over a billion reported links this year exclusively.

The explosion in takedown notices has garnered the interest of the U.S. Government. A couple of months ago the Copyright Office announced a public consultation in order to gauge the impact and effectiveness of the existing DMCA conditions.

“The notice-and-takedown process has been an effective and efficient way to address online infringement,” the company told the Copyright Office in April.

“The increasing volume of URLs removed from Search each year demonstrates that rights holders are finding the notice-and-takedown process worthwhile, efficient, and scalable to their needs.”

“The notice-and-takedown system has proved an ineffective tool for the volume of unauthorized digital music available, something akin to bailing out an ocean with a teaspoon,” they wrote.

The only way to handle the ever increasing volume of DMCA requests, Google and search providers must revise and figure an alternative method to control copyrights.