Google removes record-breaking 200m piracy links so far in 2013

Google has been forced to remove over 200m "pirate" links from its search listings by rights holders in 2013 a four-fold increase over 2012.

Data released as part of Google’s transparency reports, compiled by TorrentFreak, show that at the current rate removal of alleged piracy links, Google will have been forced to delete over 250m by the end of 2013.

The UK and US recording industry trade bodies BPI and RIAA lead the charge for takedown notices, with a combined 74m requests so far in 2013.
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FilesTube, a Poland-based file hosting site, had the highest level of removals with over 7.6m links deleted from Google search results. In total, Google was asked to remove links from 295,726 domains by 29,434 copyright holders.

Despite the record-breaking number of link removals, with Google removing more than eight “pirate” links a second, Hollywood’s trade body, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), slammed Google for not doing enough to prevent people from finding pirated content.

“Search engines bear responsibility for introducing people to infringing content – even people who aren’t actively looking for it,” the chairman of the MPAA, Chris Dodd, said at the time. “The television and movie community is working every day to develop new and innovative ways to watch content online, and as the internet’s gatekeepers, search engines share a responsibility to play a constructive role in not directing audiences to illegitimate content.”

In the final week of September takedown notices sent to Google hit 5.3m spanning 37,413 domains from 5,407 copyright owners, which marked a 4008% increase over the first notice listings by Google in July 2011.