Tuesday, 06 November 2012 12:47
UK government acts as Big Content sock puppet
Written by Nick Farrell
Offers to kick Google
The UK government has offered to be Big Content's bully boy and give Google a good kicking for not being hard enough on p2p sites.
Big Content wants Google to stop providing search links to sites that it thinks peddle pirated material. Google has offered to downgrade illegal filesharing websites in its search results, but entertainment groups accused the internet giant of dragging its feet over the issue.
Now the UK's department for culture, media and sport (DCMS) says it will examine the technical changes promised by Google in August, when it pledged to relegate sites that persistently flout copyright laws. If it does not think that Google has done enough to make it difficult for people to find pirated content then the government would "consider its options".
The studios complain that if you search Google for their favourite artist – for example "Katy Perry download" or "One Direction MP3" – will find the highest-ranked results point them to illegal filesharing sites. Google said that it demoted millions of sites every month. However, entertainment groups complained that Google was still not doing enough to tackle the issue.
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