Because those who run pirate sites often ignore takedown requests, copyright holders began targeting search engines and other online platforms that inadvertently help users to find pirated content.
Typically, copyright holders outsource this work to third-party companies that scan the web for links to pirated material. These companies then contact search engines, like Google, to request their removal.
Google has become a primary target for these requests, having recently processed its 10 billionth URL removal request.
Link-Busters: The Takedown Champion of 2024
These removal requests are not new. The process has been going on for well over a decade, fueled by reports from thousands of rightsholders. This year, however, one company stood out far beyond the rest in a way we’ve never witnessed before.
This comes less than half a year after it reached the one billion milestone, and currently it’s sending takedowns for more than 250 million URLs per month.
At this rate, it is no surprise that Link-Busters is the most prolific takedown sender at Google. In fact, it’s good for well over half of all takedown requests the search engine received since this summer. That’s something we’ve never seen before.
Publishers Fight Piracy
Link-Busters’ record-breaking numbers reveal that its notices are almost exclusively sent on behalf of publishing companies. The rise of shadow libraries, combined with the threat of AI scraping, has made these companies very active on the anti-piracy front.
Websites such as Z-Library and Anna’s Archive allow the public to download free books. These books can also be used for AI training. To prevent this, publishers try to make these sites unfindable in search results.
Looking at Link-Busters’ most-targeted domains, we see three Anna’s Archive domains on top, followed by a series of localized Z-Library domains. These six domains are already good for over 340 million reported URLs.
The table also shows the top rightsholders working with the anti-piracy company. These are all publishing companies, with Penguin Random House and HarperCollins clearly standing out, with a billion takedowns combined. Other popular request senders include Taylor & Francis, Simon and Schuster, and Hachette.
‘Better Than All The Rest’
It’s clear that Link-Busters is more ‘active’ than most competing takedown outfits, but this conclusion deserves some nuance. For one, many of the reported domains are mirrors, which show the same pirated books and articles duplicated across different URLs.
Additionally, shadow libraries generally have a larger amount of content indexed than pirate sites specializing in video content. That’s simply because there are more titles available.
However, various online testimonials suggest that publishing companies are quite satisfied with Link-Busters’ service.
“Benchmarked against the competition, Link-Busters were better at finding infringements, responded faster and did not suffer from ‘false positives’,” Penguin Random House notes.
Taylor & Francis, meanwhile, notices that Link-Busters helped to process “at least 400% more removals than previous years.”
Shadow Libraries Expand
It’s clear that Link-Busters is making an impact and that many publishers are content. While the billions of takedowns prevented some people from ending up at pirate sites, it didn’t stop them from operating.
Despite pressure from a U.S. criminal prosecution, Z-Library remains online. The site has just announced that it will close the book on a rather successful year. With over 36 million user profiles and 250 million daily reading recommendations, it continues to serve a massive audience.
Interestingly, the site continues to grow its presence off the web as well. Z-Library closes the year with 876,477 users of its desktop application, which more than doubled in a year.
Anna’s Archive, meanwhile, continued to grow as well. After ending last year with 25 million indexed books and 99 million academic papers, it now has access to more than 36 million books and over 106 million papers.
All in all, it’s safe to say that Link-Busters has a lot more link busting to do in the new year. At the current rate, it will send a few billion DMCA takedown requests to Google in 2025.
