“What we can see is that numerous complaints provide a redundant volume of links that look like some machine-built template as well as a large amount of non-informative links to various parts of the 4shared website,” Mike says. The company used the Lumen Database to review several takedown notices and quickly realized that many reported links are pointing to the same files, or none at all. “It only removes the link from search results in Google, while sending a complaint directly means a quick block of the link itself.”Īccording to 4shared, the high number of takedown requests is in part driven by bogus reports. “Complaining to Google is not effective if your goal is to remove a file asap,” 4shared’s Mike tells us. In fact, some even have direct delete access, allowing them to remove files from the site straight away. One of the issues that was brought up first, is the question why rightsholders would target Google at all if they can remove infringing files directly from the site itself.Īccording to 4shared, the top reporting agencies know very well that 4shared has a strict removal policy. However, the company believes that the numbers are massively inflated due to various dubious takedown practices.
TorrentFreak had a chance to speak with 4shared, which isn’t proud of this record. Over the past several years the search engine has received a mind-boggling 50 million takedown requests for 4shared URLs, more than any other website out there.Īn unusually high amount, especially considering that 4shared only has about 2 million pages indexed. The site itself has a DMCA takedown procedure in place so rightsholders can remove files directly, but interestingly, most complaints about the site are directed at Google’s search index. As one of the largest online file-sharing services, 4shared is closely watched by copyright holders whose work is made available on the site.
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