Google Search Algorithm Update to Target Piracy Sites

Posted on August 11, 2012
Filed Under Search Engine Optimisation, Web Hosting | Leave a Comment

Google® Inc announced yesterday that they have incorporated an update into their algorithm which will aim to penalise sites that have (in their own words) “valid copyright removal notices”.

“Sites with high numbers of removal notices may appear lower in our results ….. we won’t be removing any pages from search results unless we receive a valid copyright removal notice from the rights owner.“

The new algorithm will take into account the number of these copyright notices and aim to push the offending site down the rankings and potentially out of the index entirely. The system which Google offers to copyright holders to notify them of copyright infringing material/sites within their index has been receiving an increasing number of notices since they introduced it in 2009. According to their Transparency Report, copyright removal notices are at an all time high, the graph does indeed show a worrying trend.

Current Statistics..

URLs Requested to be Removed 4,415,284
Specified Domains 29,006
Copyright Owners 1,636
Reporting Organizations 1,265

 

One of the most striking thing about these statistics is the notices received from ‘Reporting Organisations’ which seems to fuel a trend in copyright enforcement company growth. It must be a big business now. Topping the list of reporting organisations within the last month is The multimedia copyright protection company – Degban Ltd and their number of notices follows the recent trend closely, putting them at the forefront of copyright owner representation. However, topping the list since Google starting reporting the statistics is Marketly llc who surprisingly only represents 2 Copyright Holders (reporting 2,972,512 URLs within 21,745 domains, compared with Degban’s 92 clients, reporting 2,403,531 URLs within 8,639 domains. The BPI (British Recorded Music Industry) Ltd comes at number three for the top reporting organisations, showing the recent trends in music piracy online, representing an impressive 270 copyright holders reporting 1,904,995 URLs within 262 different domains.

The recent trend in music piracy online is further proved when looking at the top copyright holders in the reports. First is the Recording Industry Association of America, Inc. which represents EMI Music North America, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and their associated record labels. The RIAA has had notices served against 1,565,247 URLs (at an average rate of 7,387 per week). The top 5 domains reported for infringement by the RIAA (does it seem remarkable that Youtube is not featured in this list?) …

downloads.nl
135,064
mp3searchy.com
96,922
pisamba.com
91,218
mp3skull.com 91,118
audiko.net 87,673

 

All Time Top 10 Copyright Infringement Reported Domains on Google

(11/08/12)

Domain Copyright Owners Reporting Organizations URLs Reported
1 filestube.com
1,062
418
867,070
2 extratorrent.com
521
176
275,195
3 torrenthound.com
531
185
267,916
4 isohunt.com
782
279
245,201
5 bitsnoop.com
691
293
244,591
6 kat.ph
730
230
231,001
7 torrentz.eu
778
354
229,407
8 4shared.com
380
138
195,601
9 zippyshare.com
428
87
185,622
10 filetram.com
634
211
182,327

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