The UK government has drawn up a Voluntary Code of Practice that demote search results for copyright-infringing websites - signed by Google, Bing, the Motion Picture Association and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).
They formalize and quicken the procedure by which a rights holder can flag what it sees to be a site containing illegal content. In the event that the demand is maintained, the link will be expelled from the first page of search results, told UK's Intellectual Property Office.
UK Minister for University, Science, Research and Innovation - Jo Johnson, will screen the code and its usage alongside the IPO. The idea is to make unlawful illegal content to be so difficult to find that casual internet users will opted for the official alternative instead.
UK's minister for digital and culture Matt Hancock said that they have a responsibility to make sure that consumers have easy access to legal content online. According to him, pirate sites deprive artists and rights holders of hard-earned income, and he is delighted to the solutions that will be instrumental in driving change.
The code expands on existing anti-piracy mechanism which incorporate ISP-driven site blocking and composed warnings to suspected pirates. While these approaches have had some effect, illegal streaming and file sharing - the latter mainly through torrenting, remains overflowing.
Rights holders are determined in their battle to shut the practice down, however at the same time, file sharers have dependably figured out how to remain one step ahead, reported ArsTechnica. The BPI concedes that the new code won't be a silver bullet fix, but believes casual users hunting down music, movies and TV shows will probably trying locate a reasonable site on Google now.
According to President of the Motion Pictures Association Steve McCoy, pirates sites are right now much too simple to discover via search. So, they appreciate the groups' willingness to attempt to enhance the situation.
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