Link-Busters is a Dutch anti-piracy service that sends takedown notices to Google and other search engines on behalf of major publishers.

Link-Busters works for major publishers such as Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Simon and Schuster, Hachette, John Wiley & Sons, and Princeton University Press.[1][2][3] The company was among the top 10 organizations sending takedown notices to Google Search in 2018.[4] In 2024 it was reported that the company was responsible for over half of all Google takedown requests.[1] That year it sent over a billion such requests to Google,[2] and it broke two billion in early 2025.[1] Its increased activity has been described as a response to the growing popularity of shadow libraries such as Anna's Archive and Z-Library.[1][2]

The company relies on automation to generate a high number of requests,[3] some of which have been reported as incorrect.[5] In 2022 the company was criticized for sending takedown notices regarding a book review website that was not infringing on copyright, and engaging in censorship by copyright.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Van der Sar, Ernesto (2025-01-17). "More Than Half of All Google Search Takedowns Now Come from Link-Busters". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2025-01-18.
  2. ^ a b c Van der Sar, Ernesto (2024-07-29). "Link-Busters Sent a Billion DMCA Takedown Requests to Google Search". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2025-01-18.
  3. ^ a b Van der Sar, Ernesto (2024-05-31). "Link-Busters Flagged Over 56 Million 'Pirate' URLs to Google in a Week". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2025-01-18.
  4. ^ Strzelecki, Artur (2019-01-21). "Website removal from search engines due to copyright violation". ASLIB Journal of Information Management. 71 (1): 54–71. doi:10.1108/AJIM-05-2018-0108. ISSN 2050-3806.
  5. ^ Seng, Daniel. "Copyrighting copywrongs: An empirical analysis of errors with automated DMCA takedown notices." Santa Clara High Tech. LJ 37 (2021): 119.
  6. ^ Thu, Jan 20th 2022 10:43am-Mike Masnick (2022-01-20). "Totally Bogus DMCA Takedowns From Giant Publishers Completely Nuke Book Review Blog Off The Internet". Techdirt. Retrieved 2025-01-27.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
Allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link-Busters
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