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Google and Microsoft To Crackdown On Piracy Sites In Search Results (telegraph.co.uk)

Posted by msmash on from the tightening-the-screws dept.

Google and Microsoft pledged on Monday to crack down on sites hosting pirated content that show up on their search engines. In what is being called a first of its kind agreement, Google and Microsoft's Bing will demote U.K. search results of copyright infringing websites. From a report on The Telegraph: The search engine operators have signed up to a clampdown that will see the UK's copyright watchdog monitor the search results they provide for unlawful websites. The agreement follows years of campaigning by record labels and film studios, which have accused Google and Microsoft of turning a blind eye to piracy and dragging their feet over measures to protect copyright online. Under a new voluntary code, the tech giants have committed to demote websites that have repeatedly been served with copyright infringement notices, so that they do not appear on the first page for common searches.

4 of 104 comments (clear)

  1. Anyone have a link to the price sheet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This is fantastic news! Does anyone know where I can find the current Google/Microsoft price sheet for result filtering?

    I don't like it when people talk about religion or green cars (hate, hate HATE the colour green). How much would it cost to have Google protect people from search results relating to religion or green cars?

  2. uhhh... by ckatko · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If they're removing them "now", what the hell were they doing before? Results are already riddled with DMCA takedown removed results. Google has been publishing the list of these removed URLs for years:

    https://www.google.com/transpa...

    Also, FUN FACT. They're not doing what they say because they never do what they say. If they REALLY went after copyright infringing websites they'd take down:

      - Google+
      - Facebook
      - YouTube
      - Reddit
      - Twitter
      - Imgur

    Those places are FULL of copyrighted information and nobody bats an eye.

  3. In the UK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So the UK will get its own censored version of Google and Bing, like China. I'm sure they're proud of their new found greatness. Look at us, we can make Google do as we say. Yeah, you told them to shot you in the foot and they obliged. Idiots.

  4. No more YouTube results in Google searches? by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 5, Insightful

    >> demote websites that have repeatedly been served with copyright infringement notices

    So...you're saying that we'll stop seeing YouTube results in Google searches?