Under the coordination of the UK government, rights holders and today's top two search engines have reached and signed an agreement that will demote piracy-related links in search results.
The parties that signed the deal include search providers Google and Microsoft (Bing), and rights holders Motion Picture Association (MPA) and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).
Search engines agree to demote and delist infringing links
Through the terms of the deal, search engines have agreed to demote or delist links in search results that point to copyright infringing sites. This includes links to torrent downloads, file lockers, and illegal movie and music streaming services.
Rights holders will have a say in what links will be sanctioned and buried in search results, having the capability to report infringing sites.
Rights holders already have the ability to report infringing sites, but until now this happened without a formal written agreement and search engines were the ones that decided if they wanted to remove or bury the content in their search results.
For example, BPI alone has sent over 450 million reports to the two search engines since 2011, with over 183 million reports to Bing, and over 274 million to Google.
Search engines will edit autocomplete suggestions
Rights holders and search engines will also collaborate on how to improve search results, by promoting links to sites where users could buy the legitimate version of the content, and by improving autocomplete suggestions to remove hints for search queries that might lead to infringing content.
A big factor that brought all sides to the negotiation table was the proliferation of malware and other security threats via pirated content in recent years, with authorities citing that one in three pirate sites were found to carry harmful malware.
The UK government brokered the deal through the Intellectual Property Office (IPO), and with the assistance of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Office of Communications (Ofcom).
Deal only valid in the UK... for now
The deal is only valid in the UK, but as we've seen in the past, such accords have a way of spreading to other countries in subsequent years.
For example, a decision to block torrent sites through court orders and the creation of a national block list has spread from the UK to other countries such as Australia, Portugal, Thailand, Angola, Malaysia, and even Russia.
"As we build a more global Britain we want the UK to be the most innovative country to do business, and initiatives like this will ensure our creative and digital economies continue to thrive," said Minister of State for Digital and Culture, Matt Hancock. "We are one of the world’s leading digital nations, and we have a responsibility to make sure that consumers have easy access to legal content online."
Before this deal, the UK already had a few anti-piracy measures in place. These include court ordered site blocking, the "Get it Right from a Genuine Site" consumer education campaign, and collaborations with various services to reduce advertising on illegal sites.
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