In August 2012, Google introduced the DMCA algorithm, also known as the Piracy Update, to demote sites that have an unusually high number of DMCA takedown requests.
Google announced Friday that they are pushing out an updated version of that algorithm in the upcoming week. Google wrote:
An improved DMCA demotion signal in Search. In August 2012 we first announced that we would downrank sites for which we received a large number of valid DMCA notices. We’ve now refined the signal in ways we expect to visibly affect the rankings of some of the most notorious sites. This update will roll out globally starting next week.
Now, this should only impact a very small tiny percentage of sites on the internet. But it seems like the sites that will be impacted will be hit very very hard.
Of course, with Penguin 3.0 rolling out this weekend, all the eyes and chatter is surrounding that update and not the DMCA algorithm.
Forum discussion at Google+.