Google & Microsoft Plans To Demote Piracy Sites In UK

The tech giants Microsoft have inked a voluntary code of practice with the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and Motion Picture Association following a series of talks overseen by the UK's copyright watchdog and steered by the department for culture, media, and sport.

According to Deadline, the landmark decision is taken into action after years of anti-piracy campaigning from the United Kingdom government and creative industries, which have accused the U.S. tech giants of dragging their feet in the fight against illegal copyright infringement.

The code was agreed on February 9 between the giant search engines and entertainment trade bodies including the Motion Picture Association and music industry body BPI. The UK government's IP Office brokered the deal and it's expected to come into full effect this summer.

As per CNBC "Consumers are increasingly heading online for music, films, e-books, and a wide variety of other content. It is essential that they are presented with the links to legitimate websites and services, not provided with links to pirate sites," Jo Johnson, U.K. minister of state for universities, science, research, and innovation.

Google-which commands more than 90 percent of the search market in Europe-was keen to play down the significance of the agreement. "Google has been an active partner for many years in the battle against piracy online," it said in a statement to Ars. We remain committed to tackling this issue and look forward to further partnership.

Stan McCoy the Euro chief of Motion Picture Association said: "Pirate websites are currently 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 as well as many other approaches to finish online piracy."

Recent research from the UK Government's IP Office found that 15 percent of all UK internet users have accessed at least one item of illegal content. For more details keep visiting latinpost.com and share your views in the comment section.