Google Starts Reporting False DMCA Takedown Requests

[silicon_toad2000]

Google has quietly rolled out a new feature to its copyright transparency report, allowing the public to see when DMCA takedown notices sent by copyright holders are false. The search giant is currently processing more than a dozen million “infringing” links per month, but points out that not all requests sent by rightsholders are legitimate. As an example, Google cites a request where a major U.S. motion picture studio asked them to censor their IMDb page and official trailer.

Ever since Google started publishing a transparency report for the DMCA requests it receives, the number of notices being sent have shot through the roof.

During the past month copyright holders asked Google to remove 12,045,130 webpages from its search. Unfortunately, however, not all of these requests are legitimate.

In some cases the notices are flagged as false because the content has already been removed from the original site. But the automated systems used by copyright holders also include perfectly legitimate content as we’ve highlighted in the past.

This hasn’t gone unnoticed by Google either.

“A major U.S. motion picture studio requested removal of the IMDb page for a movie released by the studio, as well as the official trailer posted on a major authorized online media service,’ they write in their FAQ.

http://torrentfreak.com/google-starts-reporting-false-dmca-takedown-requests-121213/