Google DMCA takedowns hit by DMCA takedowns

Movie studios aren't keen on having people share their content illegally online, they've made a big point about this. However, now they're claiming that their takedown requests are actually infringing themselves, with several asking Google to remove them from the transparency reports.

In an effort to name and shame companies that were sending in ridiculous numbers of take-down requests, sometimes for content they didn't own, Google implemented a way for the public to see who's asking for what to be removed from Google search results and how often. However, as a by product of making these public, it's made the links to the copyright protected content more visible. As TorrentFreak points out, it would be easy for someone with a bit of coding know how to use the studio requests as a way to search out new movies and music.

Since making takedown requests easier to file, Google has been inundated. 

Some of the studios demanding the links be removed include 20th Century Fox, NBC Universal and Lionsgate. Whether Google will comply remains to be seen. This whole issue highlights the problem with these automated tools the studios use, reporting directly to Google as there is no intelligence behind the reports.

KitGuru Says: What do you guys think should happen in this situation? Should Google comply? Or is this merely a by product of having a removal procedure that studios should be grateful exists in the first place? 

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