Fluffeh writes:
A new paper published in the Virginia Journal of Law and Technology shows that the number of DMCA notices received by Google increased 711,887 percent in four years. The increase can be credited to a few copyright holders and industry groups such as the RIAA, who started an avalanche of takedown requests after the SOPA and PIPA bills died in Congress.
New research by Stanford Law School's Daniel Seng reveals that online services such as Google and Twitter have seen a surge in takedown requests in recent years. In fact, drawing on data from ChillingEffects.org, Seng finds that the number of DMCA notices processed by Google increased 711,887 percent in four years, from 62 in 2008 to 441,370 in 2012.
The most active copyright holders up until 2012 were the RIAA, Froytal and Microsoft, each listing more than five million notices. Seng's paper doesn't include the most recent data, but Google's Transparency Report shows that these numbers more than doubled again in 2013.
(Score: 2, Informative) by me on Wednesday March 26 2014, @02:18PM
The DMCA was signed into law on 28 Oct 1998.
To compare the 1998 figure of 62 notices to the 2012 figure to derive the 700,000% figure is completely misleading.
And probably done deliberately, as it makes for inflammatory copy.
(Score: 1) by kef on Wednesday March 26 2014, @02:25PM
It's for the last 4 years, not since 1998.
(Score: 2, Informative) by me on Wednesday March 26 2014, @02:27PM
Yep, your right. My mistake. Still pretty useless way of presenting the data.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by enharmonix on Wednesday March 26 2014, @02:29PM
I would argue a 700,000% increase is pretty staggering even when it's spaced out over 16 years. However, notices received by "Google increased 711,887 percent in four years" (emphasis mine). They were comparing the 2008 figure to the 2012 figure to derive the 700,000%. It's actually more disturbing when you realize they saw that kind of increase starting with a number that was probably several orders of magnitude larger than 62.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 27 2014, @05:22PM
By dividing the 2012 figure by the 2008 figure we reveal 7118 recent notices for each historic one; the math in the article is sound; which figures they cherry picked is the real mislead.
Unfortunately, I can still remember 2008.. in user content based games like Secondlife, DMCAs were being flung around like candy at a Christmas parade.
What the article actually reveals is that Google was 700,000% more responsive to DCMAs and the users of this service responded in suit.