14 DAY TRIAL // The fact that Google's search result takedown process is abused or that, at the very least, the companies making use of it pay very little attention to the accuracy of their claims isn't new or surprising. The fact that neither Google nor the companies involved are doing much to change that isn't either.
But perhaps they should rethink their strategies, not because they hurt innocent sites or because they don't really work. But because, in many cases, this shoot (everything) first and ask questions later (or never) approach is hurting the very companies that it's supposed to be protecting.
The system was set up by Google to make it possible for copyright owners to ask it to remove links to pages they believe to be hosting or linking to infringing content. With tens of millions of requests coming each month, you can imagine that the quality or accuracy of the requests are not a priority.
One company in particular seems to be shooting its own feet. TorrentFreak highlights some of the requests made by Magnolia Pictures for links for the movie “Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie.” Google is asked to remove links to a trailer for the movie, the IMDB page, as well as articles in The Week and Salon about the film.
The Rotten Tomatoes page for the movies “I Give It a Year” and “Mr. Nobody" and a trailer for “Prince Avalanche” are included in the request as well. And there are other requests like it, containing many legitimate sites.
It's safe to assume that removing any link to a movie from Google, its trailers, reviews, news stories, and so on is far, far more detrimental to its success than it being available on The Pirate Bay.
Fortunately for movie makers, Google doesn't let them completely make fools of themselves, so some domains, like IMDB and most others listed above, are whitelisted, and links to them won't be blocked. But smaller sites aren't so lucky. What's more, this practice may actually be encouraging even more carelessness, as companies rely on Google to figure out which links are valid and which aren't.