Pirate takedown confusion
September 5, 2016
According to news service Torrent Freak, major media owners have asked many legitimate providers – including themselves in some cases – to be removed from search links due to confusion at the service companies that a takedown service.
Torrent Freak reports that Vobile – which requests hundreds of thousands of takedowns a month – acting on behalf of Warner Bros asked Google to remove links to WB’s own site as well as Amazon, Sky and IMDB.
“Warner is inadvertently trying to make it harder for the public to find links to legitimate content, which runs counter to its intentions….Piracy monitoring firms often use automated systems to find and report copyright infringing websites,” said Ernesto van der Sar, from Torrent Freak. Companies such as Vobile typically work on behalf of major film studios, reporting illegally uploaded copies of their content.
Google’s transparency report says Vobile has submitted more than 13 million links for removal.