In a Friday morning blog post, Google said it will change its search algorithm next week to take into account “the number of valid copyright removal notices” it receives for any site. High rates of removal notices are likely to drop a site down in the search results, which Google says “should help users find legitimate, quality sources of content more easily.”

The new move appears to be a nod in the direction of rightsholders, most notably the MPAA and RIAA. The latter trade group, meanwhile, has argued previously that Google isn’t doing enough to remove possibly infringing links.

On its website, the RIAA called the new move a "potentially significant announcement."

"This change is an important step in the right direction—a step we’ve been urging Google to take for a long time—and we commend the company for its action," wrote Cary Sherman, the RIAA’s chairman and CEO, in a statement on the group’s website.

Similarly, the MPAA also applauded the move.

"We are optimistic that Google’s actions will help steer consumers to the myriad legitimate ways for them to access movies and TV shows online, and away from the rogue cyberlockers, peer-to-peer sites, and other outlaw enterprises that steal the hard work of creators across the globe," wrote Michael O’Leary, the MPAA's senior executive vice president for global policy, in an e-mailed statement sent to Ars. "We will be watching this development closely—the devil is always in the details—and look forward to Google taking further steps to ensure that its services favor legitimate businesses and creators, not thieves.”

Digital rights advocates worried about lack of recourse

Meanwhile, the Electronic Frontier Foundation worries that Google’s demotion of some websites may be abused, simply because they may be accused of copyright violations, rather than evaluated or even convicted. And the EFF isn’t just being paranoid. We’ve seen many examples of rightholders issuing bad takedowns for files that were not infringing, or worse, that they didn’t own or even see.

"What we don’t know: what is a 'high number'?" wrote Julie Samuels and Mitch Stoltz, two EFF staff attorneys, on the organization’s blog on Friday.

"How does Google plan to make these determinations? Oh, and one other thing we do know, one that is particularly troubling: there will be no process or recourse for sites who have been demoted? In particular, we worry about the false positives problem. For example, we’ve seen the government wrongly target sites that actually have a right to post the allegedly infringing material in question or otherwise legally display content. In short, without details on how Google’s process works, we have no reason to believe they won’t make similar, over-inclusive mistakes, dropping lawful, relevant speech lower in its search results without recourse for the speakers."

Google acknowledges that it will continue to offer 'counter-notice' tools, but the EFF appears to be worried about the lost search rankings that may happen in the interim.

"So while this new signal will influence the ranking of some search results, we won’t be removing any pages from search results unless we receive a valid copyright removal notice from the rights owner," wrote Amit Singhal, a Google senior vice president of engineering, in the blog post. "We’ll also continue to be transparent about copyright removals."