Top search engines Google and Microsoft Bing have struck a deal to demote all piracy sites in the United Kingdom. This came to action after years of wrangling with film and music right holders. Both search engine companies have inked a voluntary code with the British pornographic industry.
It was described as a "landmark agreement" by the Intellectual Property Office, Google and Bing has agreed to reduce the visibility of infringing content in their search results later this year in June. Websites that post pirated material online will not appear on the first page of the search engines.
People who search for such content is believed to be directed to legit websites, Google holds more than 90 percent of the search market in the whole of Europe. The leading search engine service was keen to be a part of the agreement, they have also been an active partner for many years in the fight against piracy as per ARS Technica.
Google had announced that their service will remain to be committed in cracking down piracy issues and certainly look forward to further partnership with rights holders. Pirate websites take away the rights from artists of their hard earned income. Digital Minister Matt Hancock stated that he is delighted to witness solutions like the "landmark agreement." He also believes that this will be an instrument of driving change to the digital world.
Will all illegal sites demoted more quickly from search results, Google also points out the fact that it hopes to avoid regulatory interfering from the British Government. On the other hand the British Government had threatened to bring in legislation if both parties had failed to strike a deal.
The U.S. search engines has also witnessed similar pressure over the past decade, Google has taken steps towards these issues previously by introducing its new anti-piracy algorithm in 2014.
