"We’ve also seen baseless copyright removal requests being used for anticompetitive purposes, or to remove content unfavorable to a particular person or company from our search results," he adds.

In addition to reviewing purge requests itself, Google also notifies webmasters when their site is targeted by a copyright removal request so they can contest requests themselves.

Requests for link purges are made to Google under authority of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Since that law was passed in 1998, it has changed very little. That's prompted some groups to call for an of the law.

One area that's changed since passage of the DMCA is how the law treats "jailbreaking" devices. It However, that's currently by the U.S. Patent and Trademark office.

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