It is well known that Google has given copyright holders the ability to request the removal of links to illegal material from its search results. The film, music and software industries take advantage of this opportunity with great joy and sometimes with considerable zeal.
The RIAA , however, can be considered a champion, having requested the removal of 25 million pages to date.
The rate at which the RIAA is asking Google to remove pages from its search results is increasing. The group had 20 million requests by May, and in just six weeks, it added another five million links.
Of course, it is not the company with the most requests, as the largest issuer of takedown requests is Indian anti-piracy company Degban. In third place, right after the RIAA, comes another music industry group, BPI, with 24.3 million requests.
The two groups together have nearly 50 million requests, making the music industry the largest user of Google's takedown tool.
