It seems precedent for banning torrent websites on Google, Yahoo and Bing is soon to be set by the UK.
Torrent aggregating websites may have to deal with their greatest challenge so far. According to a new report by TorrentFreak, representatives from search engine companies like Google, Bing and Yahoo, met representatives from the entertainment industry, in a meeting facilitated by the British Intellectual Property Office. TF’s report says an agreement is very close to being reached, which sees Google and other search engines ban torrent aggregators from their search results.
“Since the idea was last discussed in Parliament, Intellectual Property Office officials have chaired a further round table meeting between search engines and representatives of the creative industries, said Baroness J.P. Buscombe, from the Digital Economy Bill committee. She also said that there are elements to be settled still, but the “key content of the code” has been agreed upon and an agreement should be “reached very soon”.
Further, it seems the target for the Bill to come into effect is June 1, this year. Buscombe says search engines involved in this work “have been very co-operative, making changes to their algorithms and processes, but also working bilaterally with creative industry representatives to explore the options for new interventions and how existing processes might be streamline”.
It seems talks are headed towards a voluntary code of conduct, instead of legislation from the government. However, Buscombe did say that this can change in future if things don’t work out.
While these discussions are on paper relevant to the UK only, they could have global implications as well. For one, a precedent is set with this move. Moreover, the Internet is without boundaries by nature, which means that if the algorithms and processes used in the UK do work out, there should be no change needed for other countries.
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