Oh look, UK’s anti-piracy system for music is actually working

PRS for Music’s Anti-Piracy System (MAPS) launched a year ago, and have shared some statistics that suggest the program is a success.

MAPS claim to have removed 80% of 5 million copyright-infringing URLS, sending over 136,000 take down notices to websites hosting or linking to pirated music.

The sweep also saw 275,000 live links removed from Google’s search pages, Billboard reports.

U.K.’s Intellectual Property Office reports that 78 million music tracks were accessed illegally in the U.K. between March and May, 2016, down from the 96 million tracks accessed during the same months in 2015.

“We are proud to be able to tackle piracy on such scale, as well as empower our members to take action to protect their own repertoire”, PRS anti-piracy unit manager Sharan Ghuman said in a statement.

Simon Bourn, PRS head of litigation, enforcement and anti-piracy, said they aren’t out to quash new technology, and the organisation’s “first approach is always to take steps to work with new digital platforms, to find a mechanism to license rather than enforce.

“It is our mission to ensure that those who mandate us with their rights are always paid fairly for the use of their work, today and in the future.”