DMCA Takedowns and Selectivity — by the Numbers

Since June 2012, the proprietary software DMCA Force uses to locate possible infringements on our clients’ copyrights has scanned over 100 million URLs that had terms, file names or other indicators that matched our clients’ properties and products. Of those 100 million-plus URLs, the software flagged over 13 million as possible infringements. From there, our human analysts narrowed it down to 1.35 million offenses for which we issued DMCA takedown notices.

Some people might read those numbers and think they are nothing to crow about. Why would we call attention to the fact that we only issue a takedown notice for approximately 1 in 7 URLs that we scan?

The answer is simple; like any automated system, our software can only do so much to confirm that any given possible infringement is an actual infringement. In order to ensure that we don’t issue false takedown notices, or accidentally ask Google to remove links to our client’s own website, or otherwise do something that might embarrass one of our clients, we take the time to review the potential infringements identified by our software.

Make no mistake; manually reviewing possible infringements is a time-consuming and resource-intensive process, and it’s not how many competing DMCA takedown services do business, but it does help us sleep at night in comfort, knowing that our clients won’t wake up to a headline like “DMCA Services Company Demands Takedown of Client’s Own Youtube Channel.”