Google removes links to websites hosting Jennifer Lawrence stolen nudes

The actor's lawyers filed DMCA notices over the copyrighted images

The Oscar-winning actress has won new admirers with her response to becoming a ‘sex crime’ victim (PA)

Google has removed links to two websites that were hosting stolen nude photos of Jennifer Lawrence after the domains were reported by the actor’s lawyers.

The links were removed after a takedown request was filed under the digital millennium copyright act (DMCA), the US copyright law the covers the access and publication of copyrighted images.

The DMCA is usually used by music and movie rights owners to prompt Google to remove links to pirated material, but has also proved to be a useful tool in the number of high profile hacking cases – sometimes dubbed ‘celebgate’ – that took place earlier this year.

Speaking to The Independent and repeating its earlier statement, a Google spokesperson said: “We've removed tens of thousands of pictures -- within hours of the requests being made -- and we have closed hundreds of accounts.

"The Internet is used for many good things. Stealing people’s private photos is not one of them”.

The Guardian reports that the website hosting the images has since changed its domain name, causing the site (and the pictures) to re-appear in Google's search results and thus necessitating another DMCA takedown