When using Google Search, people can search for anything.

As the popular search engine in the world, Google will try to provide the most relevant results through its search engine results pages. The thing is, sometimes, results are sometimes repetitive. Or worse, some results come from websites that copy contents from other websites without permission.

While the practice of copying others' contents is extremely common, there are times when the original content creator, or the author of a post, doesn't want others to copy their work.

Google knows this very well, and this is why it has provided ways for people to file a DMCA takedown.

According to Google on its Transparency Report page:

"It is our policy to respond to clear and specific notices of alleged copyright infringement. The form of notice we specify in our web form is consistent with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and provides a simple and efficient mechanism for copyright owners from countries/regions around the world. To initiate the process to delist content from Search results, a copyright owner who believes a URL points to infringing content sends us a takedown notice for that allegedly infringing material. When we receive a valid takedown notice, our teams carefully review it for completeness and check for other problems. If the notice is complete and we find no other issues, we delist the URL from Search results.

And this time, the search engine is detailing how it can go a step further.

According to a released document to the U.S. Copyright Office on February 8, 2022, Google said that “when a site is demoted [by the Pirate update], the traffic Google Search sends it drops, on average, by 89% on average.”

This rule should apply to websites that "received a large number of valid removal notices" over DMCA requires.

Google said in a document that "we have developed a 'demotion signal' for Google Search that causes sites for which we have received a large number of valid removal notices to appear much lower in search results."

And knowing that web developers can be sneaky, Google said that it has ways to counter redirect tricks.

To do this, the company said that it has a flag named still-in-theaters/prerelease that can catch websites hit by this update that redirect its pages to new domains without that flag.

Google said that "we have also made it much harder for infringing sites to evade demotion by redirecting people to a new domain,” adding that "we have added a 'still-in-theaters/prerelease' flag for DMCA notices involving this category of content to enhance the Search demotion signal."

Google's Pirate update is originally called the DMCA update, when it was introduced back in 2012. What it does, is looking for websites that have received a large number of DMCA takedown requests.

When it sees this kind of website, it will demote the site.

Owners of the website being demoted may receive a Search Console notification.

If they think that their website is mistakenly accused, they can check Google's Transparency Report, or maybe request reconsiderations.

This is because the technology is far from perfect, and websites may receive DMCA notices from time to time despite not doing anything.

Google is certainly finding itself in an difficult position, knowing that it needs to find a balance between helping copyright holders and keeping its customers happy.

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Google Search 'Pirate Update' Can Make Demoted Websites Lose 89% In Search Traffic