Link-Busters

Last updated

Link-Busters is an 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]

Related Research Articles

MediaDefender, Inc. was a company that fought copyright infringement that offered services designed to prevent alleged copyright infringement using peer-to-peer distribution. They used unusual tactics such as flooding peer-to-peer networks with decoy files that tie up users' computers and bandwidth. MediaDefender was based in Los Angeles, California in the United States. As of March 2007, the company had approximately 60 employees and used 2,000 servers hosted in California with contracts for 9 Gbit/s of bandwidth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BREIN</span> Dutch entertainment industry interest group

The Bescherming Rechten Entertainment Industrie Nederland is an advocacy group with international links, based in the Netherlands, which represents the interests of the Dutch entertainment industry and is organised under the Dutch law through the legal form of stichting. It is notable for launching court proceedings against copyright infringement in the country and for engaging in lobbying in order to create legal precedents of global significance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Pirate Bay</span> Website providing torrent files and magnet links

The Pirate Bay, commonly abbreviated as TPB, is a freely searchable online index of movies, music, video games, pornography and software. Founded in 2003 by Swedish think tank Piratbyrån, The Pirate Bay facilitates the connection among users of the peer-to-peer torrent protocol, which are able to contribute to the site through the addition of magnet links. The Pirate Bay has consistently ranked as one of the most visited torrent websites in the world.

isoHunt Torrent index site closed 2013

isoHunt was an online torrent files index and repository, where visitors could browse, search, download or upload torrents of various digital content of mostly entertainment nature. The website was taken down in October 2013 as a result of a legal action from the MPAA; by the end of October 2013 however, two sites with content presumably mirrored from isohunt.com were reported in media. One of them – isohunt.to – became a de facto replacement of the original site. It is not associated in any way with the old staff or owners of the site, and is to be understood as a separate continuation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Legal issues with BitTorrent</span>

The use of the BitTorrent protocol for the unauthorized sharing of copyrighted content generated a variety of novel legal issues. While the technology and related platforms are legal in many jurisdictions, law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies are attempting to address this avenue of copyright infringement. Notably, the use of BitTorrent in connection with copyrighted material may make the issuers of the BitTorrent file, link or metadata liable as an infringing party under some copyright laws. Similarly, the use of BitTorrent to procure illegal materials could potentially create liability for end users as an accomplice.

Notice and take down is a process operated by online hosts in response to court orders or allegations that content is illegal. Content is removed by the host following notice. Notice and take down is widely operated in relation to copyright infringement, as well as for libel and other illegal content. In United States and European Union law, notice and takedown is mandated as part of limited liability, or safe harbour, provisions for online hosts. As a condition for limited liability online hosts must expeditiously remove or disable access to content they host when they are notified of the alleged illegality.

<i>TPB AFK</i> 2013 Sweden, Denmark, Norway film

TPB AFK: The Pirate Bay Away From Keyboard is a 2013 Swedish documentary film directed and produced by Simon Klose. It focuses on the lives of the three founders of The Pirate Bay – Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, and Gottfrid Svartholm – and the Pirate Bay trial. Filming began sometime in 2008, and concluded on 28 February 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KickassTorrents</span> Defunct file-sharing website

KickassTorrents was a website that provided a directory for torrent files and magnet links to facilitate peer-to-peer file sharing using the BitTorrent protocol. It was founded in 2008 and by November 2014, KAT became the most visited BitTorrent directory in the world, overtaking The Pirate Bay, according to the site's Alexa ranking. KAT went offline on 20 July 2016 when the domain was seized by the U.S. government. The site's proxy servers were shut down by its staff at the same time.

Rightscorp. Inc is a Los-Angeles based copyright enforcement company, which locates alleged copyright violators and collects money from legal damages as well as out of court settlements on behalf of the copyright holder(s). Rightscorp manages copyrights of videos, music, and video games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nyaa Torrents</span> File sharing website focused on East Asian media

Nyaa Torrents is a BitTorrent website focused on East Asian media. It is one of the largest public anime-dedicated torrent indexes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RARBG</span> BitTorrent metasearch engine

RARBG was a website that provided torrent files and magnet links to facilitate peer-to-peer file sharing using the BitTorrent protocol. From 2014 to 2023, RARBG repeatedly appeared in TorrentFreak's yearly list of most visited torrent websites. It was ranked 4th as of January 2023. The website did not allow users to upload their own torrents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hydra effect</span> Paradox originating from the Greek legend of the Lernaean Hydra

The hydra effect or hydra paradox owes its name to the Greek legend of the Lernaean Hydra which grew two heads for each one cut off, and is used figuratively for counter-intuitive effects of actions to reduce a problem which result in stimulating its multiplication. Most notably, scientists have proposed that ecological systems can exhibit a hydra effect when "a higher death rate in a particular species ultimately increases the size of its population". The hypothesis is suggested to have implications for the eradication of pests, and resource management. There are also said to be indications that reducing the death rate can shrink a population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Library Genesis</span> File-sharing website for publications

Library Genesis is a shadow library project for file-sharing access to scholarly journal articles, academic and general-interest books, images, comics, audiobooks, and magazines. The site enables free access to content that is otherwise paywalled or not digitized elsewhere. LibGen describes itself as a "links aggregator", providing a searchable database of items "collected from publicly available public Internet resources" as well as files uploaded "from users".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1337x</span> File-sharing website

1337x is an online website that provides a directory of torrent files and magnet links used for peer-to-peer file sharing through the BitTorrent protocol. According to the TorrentFreak news blog, 1337x is the second-most popular torrent website as of 2024. The U.S. Trade Representative flagged it as one of the most notorious pirate sites earlier in 2024. The site and its variants have been blocked in a variety of nations including Australia, and Portugal.

FMovies was a series of file streaming websites that host links and embedded videos, allowing users to stream or download movies for free. The sites have been subject to legal action in various jurisdictions on grounds of copyright infringement and piracy. In August 2024, the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment announced that the site was shut down by Vietnamese authorities. The sites were receiving billions of views a year at its peak.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Z-Library</span> File-sharing site for journal articles, books, and magazines

Z-Library is a shadow library project for file-sharing access to scholarly journal articles, academic texts and general-interest books. It began as a mirror of Library Genesis, but has expanded dramatically.

youtube-dl is a free and open source software tool for downloading video and audio from YouTube and over 1,000 other video hosting websites. It is released under the Unlicense software license.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Openload</span> File-sharing website

Openload was a file-sharing website that shut down in 2019 after legal action by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment. The site was highly-used before its shutdown, making most of its money from advertising and cryptojacking. The site was designated as a notorious market and often used for copyright infringement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MangaDex</span> Manga aggregation website

MangaDex is a nonprofit website that aggregates translations of manga, manhwa, and manhua. Content on the website is usually unofficial, uploaded by "scanlation" groups, but links to official services like Manga Plus and Bilibili Comics are also provided on the website. MangaDex was started in 2018 by developer Hologfx, and is funded through user donations and affiliate programs. The website is blocked in several countries, including Italy, Russia and Indonesia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna's Archive</span> Search engine for shadow libraries

Anna's Archive is an open source search engine for shadow libraries that was launched by the pseudonymous Anna shortly after law enforcement efforts to shut down Z-Library in 2022. The site aggregates records from several major shadow libraries, including Z-Library, Sci-Hub, and Library Genesis, as well as other sources. It calls itself "the largest truly open library in human history", and has said it aims to "catalog all the books in existence" and "track humanity's progress toward making all these books easily available in digital form". It claims not to be responsible for downloads of copyrighted materials, since it indexes metadata and links to third-party downloads but does not directly host any files. However, it has faced government censorship and legal action from publishers and anti-piracy groups for engaging in large-scale copyright infringement.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 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. 1 2 3 Van der Sar, Ernesto (2024-07-29). "Link-Busters Sent a Billion DMCA Takedown Requests to Google Search". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2025-01-18.
  3. 1 2 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)