New Google data shows Microsoft's piracy problems

by Elizabeth M Young

Created on: May 25, 2012

To close out the idea that Microsoft is doing the piracy, the stunning Google data report reveals over 2.5 million requests to remove URLs and targeted sites that are believed to be violating Microsoft's copyrights. One of the most frequent complaints from Microsoft involve illegal downloads of Microsoft's operating system and other?proprietary?software. According to

Business Week, Microsoft submitted over 536,716 requests to Google in the past month alone. Google will investigate and remove URLs and targeted websites from search results when the content is plagiarized or steals copyrighted intellectual property.

It is a bit of a surprise that a software maker, Microsoft, filed more complaints than the entertainment industry giants who are trying to fight extensive online piracy. Microsoft did not have a comment to make about Google's report, and the report does not give detailed information about the requests, beyond the illegal operating system and other software downloads.

Google set up and conducted a review of complaints to get a better understanding of copyright and other intellectual property abuses. The review covered requests to remove sites or pages with copyright infringing content from its search results, and the requests dated back to July 2011.

Now Google's Transparency Report has a page that shows the the monthly URL removals that came from complaints about copyright infringement. The Transparency Report gives options of "all time" since July 11, 2011, "the past month" and other time periods. The report for the latest month, ending on May 25, showed the following:?

1,255,402 requests to remove URLs.?

24,374 Targeted Domains were identified in the Transparency Report. The list of top targeted domains includes Filestubes, Torrentz and Pirate Bay. The total number of targeted domains is 105,928.

1,314 Copyright owners and their complaints are listed in the Transparency Report. Joining Microsoft were NBC Universal, which took second place in the number of complaints against?3,728 targeted domains and 165,662 URLs in the latest month. BPI Ltd represents the British recording industry and complained about?551 targeted domains and 51,087 URLs in the latest month. Other major copyright owners included SONY Music, Paramount Pictures, EMI, and even Porn Pros.

1,099 Reporting Organizations contributed requests. Marketly Llc represented two copyright owners and led the pack with?2,197,293 URLs and?18,997 targeted domains. In second place was NBC Universal representing itself and submitting?1,005,765 urls and?15,619 targeted domains. Other reporting organizations included Takedown Piracy Llc, and Remove Your Content Llc.?

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New Google data shows Microsoft's piracy problems

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