A new plan is underway for launching a crackdown on piracy websites. The objective is to prevent internet users from accessing illegal live streaming, pirated music and other illegal material. For this purpose, leading search engines, Google and Bing have approved and signed a voluntary code of practice. As per the new development, there is going to be a marked reduction in the prevalence of pirate material websites at the top of search results. The agreement’s main focus is to protect users’ safety and to prevent users from accessing illegal content suppliers.
Purpose of the Code
In UK, this practice is first of its kind which will increase the reduction of illegal sites. The plan will be strictly implemented as soon as the notice is followed.
Through this initiative, users searching for music videos, live sports coverage etc. would be redirected to legal providers instead of private sites to protect users’ privacy.
Alliance for Intellectual Property’s Director General, Eddy Leviten said:
“Sometimes people will search for something and they will end up unwittingly being taken to a pirated piece of content. What we want to ensure is that the results at the top of the search engines are the genuine ones. It is about protecting people who use the internet, but also protecting the creators of that material too. You go into schools and speak to children and many will say they want to be on YouTube, to be a personality on there. When you explain to them that they need to protect their ideas, their content, from being stolen or pirated, they understand”
The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) with the assistance of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) held the code discussion meeting.
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Ofcom, after examining the search results presented to users, supported the discussion. The group also presented various possible techniques for the UK users to avoid such illegal content easily. According to the officials, this code will function along with existing anti-piracy methods to prevent online intrusion.
The code includes court ordered site blocking, brands to reduce advertising on pirated sites and the ‘Get it Right From A Genuine Site’ educational campaign which encourages users to support and directs them to legal source.
President of Motion Picture Association in Europe, Stanford McCoy said:
“Pirate websites are currently much too easy to find via search, so we appreciate the parties’ willingness to try to improve that situation. We look forward to working on this initiative alongside many other approaches to fighting online piracy, such as the Get it Right campaign that aims to help educate consumers about the many ways to enjoy film and television content legally and at the time of their choosing”
Execution of the Code
It is expected that the results of this piracy weed out campaign could be seen by summer this year.
BPI’s chief executive, UK record labels and Brit Awards representative, Geoff Taylor said:
“Successful and dynamic online innovation requires an ecosystem that works for everyone, users, technology companies, and artists and creators. BPI has long campaigned for search engines to do more to ensure fans are directed to legal sources for music or other entertainment. There is much work still to do to achieve this. The code will not be a silver bullet fix, but it will mean that illegal sites are demoted more quickly from search results and that fans searching for music are more likely to find a fair site”
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Jo Dipple, chief executive of UK music added:
“This is the culmination of years of discussions between rights-holders and search engines. UK Music welcomes any progress that makes our digital markets more efficient”
Source: Belfast Telegraph