Search engines have long been blamed for providing easy access to pirated content. Efforts made by copyright holders to curtail the problem have been in vain, causing billions of dollars in losses to the entertainment industry.
However, this is about to change as pirated content might soon become very difficult to find online.
Search engine companies, including tech giant, Google, have reportedly been in talks with entertainment firms in hopes of designing a new code that would reduce links leading to pirated content in search results.
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The news follows a series of discussions, chaired by the UK’s Intellectual Property Office, in which the parties agreed to introduce anti-piracy measures as early as June 1 this year. According to TorrentFreak, the companies are also “extremely close” to signing a deal.
There are also rumours of new legislation surfacing that will force search engines to block pirated content more rigorously.
“Since the idea was last discussed in [parliament], Intellectual Property Office officials have chaired a further round-table meeting between search engines and representatives of the creative industries,” Baroness Buscombe said.
“I understand that all parties are keen to finalise and sign up to the voluntary agreement, and so we believe there is no need to take a legislative power at this time.”
UK’s major ISPs earlier sent out ‘educational letters’ to customers who have been accessing films, TV shows and music illegally, as part of a government campaign to crack down on piracy.
However, the measures only applied to P2P (Peer-to-Peer) file-sharing, so customers using illegal streaming services weren’t targeted by the initiative.
