“We heard your feedback and understand that sometimes websites that experience alleged copyright infringement issues have a difficult time gaining visibility into the problem and getting relisted.” Under the new process, webmasters using Bing can now see which of their webpages have had “copyright removal notices”. This will make it easier for webmasters to manage notices and appeal them. Bing will provide webmasters with more information on how DCMA takedowns impact their website. Additionally, they will be able to address the infringement specifically, whether by removing the content or issuing an appeal. In a blog post, Microsoft explains how it handles copyright removal requests on Bing: “When Microsoft receives a request or demand, Bing balances its support for freedom of expression and for free access to relevant content with compliance with local law. “We review and assess the request or demand, including the reason and basis for the request or demand, the authority or rights of the requesting party, our applicable policies and our commitments to our users with regard to freedom of expression, and determine whether and to what extent we should remove access to the content.”
Web Crawling
Earlier this month, Microsoft introduced new web crawling capabilities to Bing. Bingbot has been improved with understanding of “which sites to crawl, how often and how many pages to fetch from each site.” BingBot is also receiving other updates, such as making its general web crawling more functional. Microsoft says it wanted to achieve “crawl efficiency”. The bot maintains a light load for site servers and managing new content.