If you’ve ever tried to search for pirated content on the likes of Google, you might have come across instances where certain search results were removed due to a DMCA takedown request. Basically these listings would link to alleged pirate content and have been removed from the search results as per the copyright owner’s request.However in the future it seems that it would be much harder to search for pirated content using either Google or Microsoft’s Bing. This is thanks to a voluntary code of practice that has been signed by both Google and Microsoft in which it would make it harder for users to visit such websites, at least if you are trying to find them via either search engine.
According to Eddy Leviten, director general at the Alliance for Intellectual Property, “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.”
These changes are expected to be rolled out by this coming summer, so that’s something you might notice in your search results in the coming months.
Filed in . Read more about Bing (Microsoft), Google, Legal, Microsoft and Piracy.