In an effort to limit piracy and infringement on content, Google and other search companies are close to striking a voluntary agreement with entertainment companies to tackle the appearance of infringing content links in search results. This interesting information came to us from Torrent Freak in their article, “Search Engines & Copyright Holders Ready Voluntary Anti-Piracy Code.”
Following some roundtable discussions chaired by the UK’s Intellectual Property Office, all parties have agreed that the code should take effect by June 1, 2017.
The problem is with search results. Whether they’re presented by Google, Bing or Yahoo, copyright holders wish that more could be done to prevent the appearance of infringing links, particularly in the first crucial pages of results. Google has taken a number of measures over the years but those holding copyrights never feel it is enough.
During a Digital Economy Bill committee, discussion again turned to the role of service providers when it comes to infringing content. A draft amendment to the bill would allow the government to impose a code of practice on search engines, forcing them to deal with infringement. However with this new agreement, legislation may not be needed. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the UK and what, if any, changes take place state-side.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in thesaurus, ontology, and taxonomy creation and metadata application.
