Film Companies Demand Google Perform Takedowns in Secret

Google has long provided the service of blocking search results in pursuance to website takedown requests. This is normally done on the basis of the DMCA and causes a message to appear at the top of a search stating that a request has been made to block some links from being shown. Just the same, by clicking one link in the message, it is possible to read the complaint that led to the takedown and effectively peruse all the url’s involved.

Fox and Universal Studios recently tendered a request to Google in the hopes that they would stop these notices from showing up entirely. They have alleged that the current method adopted by Google unintentionally highlights the infringing url’s rather than hiding them. “Torrent Freak” editor Ernesto Van Der Sar cites that it would only take one skilled coder to compile all the appearing url’s and create the largest piracy-based search engine on the planet.

All Google needs to do in order to remedy this matter is remove the link to the complaints. It is currently unknown whether Google will comply with this request or not. It has also received like requests from Lionsgate Studios and Microsoft.

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