Google has expanded its Transparency Report with a copyright section that highlights detailed information on content removal requests including the content that Google has removed from its search engine. Google launched the Transparency Report in 2010, and the search engine giant started sharing data on government requests as well as traffic patterns of its services.
“Today we’re expanding the Transparency Report with a new section on copyright. Specifically, we’re disclosing the number of requests we get from copyright owners to remove Google Search results because they allegedly link to infringing content,” Google said. The new section discloses data beginning July 2011 and Google said that it plans to update the numbers daily.
The number of requests has apparently increased with more than 250,000 requests per week. Albeit media and entertainment groups like NBC Universal, Paramount Pictures, Sony Music Entertainment, and Universal Music are expected to be among the top organizations submitting the requests, it appears that Microsoft is the biggest copyright watchdog after all.
If you’ll check out the data, you will see that Microsoft has issued removal requests for 543,378 URLs in the past month alone. Google emphasized the importance of fighting online piracy. “We don’t want our search results to direct people to materials that violate copyright laws. So we’ve always responded to copyright removal requests that meet the standards set out in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act,” Google said.