Sorry, pirates: soon your wares will be harder to find on UK search engines (and, likely, eventually in Australia – Ed). Google and Bing have agreed to a voluntary code of practice that’ll see infringing content including films, music and sport pushed down the search results.
The BBC reports that the agreement is the first of its kind in the world. It’s a collaborative effort between copyright holders, tech companies and the UK government – specifically the Intellectual Property Office; the Department for Culture, Media and Sport; and Ofcom.
However, while this all sounds good in theory, it seems like Google’s going to try to get away with not actually doing anything – apparently they think their existing measures already comply with the code. Anyone who’s actually used Google might beg to differ. As for Bing, the new measures are expected to kick in this summer for both of its users. [BBC]
This post originally appeared on Gizmodo UK, which is gobbling up the news in a different timezone.