Google steps up anti-piracy efforts

Google anti piracyGoogle has begun testing ways of directing people to legitimate sources of music and movies, as part of its efforts to help fight piracy. 

In a post on its public policy blog, Google said that it is testing offering links to services like Vevo, Google Play, and Spotify in the right-hand panel of search results to people in the US, and has plans to invest more in this area and expand it internationally.

For a small number of queries for movies that include terms like ‘download,’  ‘free,’ or ‘watch,’ Google said it has also begun to show links to services like Amazon, Google Play and Netflix.

Referring to US copyright law, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), Google said it has “now refined the signal in ways we expect to visibly affect the rankings of some of the most notorious sites. This update will roll out globally starting next week.”

This comes after Google first said in 2012 that it would downrank sites that have received a large number of valid DMCA notices.

Read Next