The number of piracy links the BPI has asked Google to remove from its search engine has passed 500 million.
The body regularly asks on the behalf of artists and rights-holders that URLs linking to copyright material should cease to appear in searches.
Requests to Google passed 500m at the weekend (March 8). Marking this milestone, BPI & BRIT Awards chief executive Geoff Taylor has issued a statement to the online company.
It reads in full:
“The fact the BPI has had to delist half a billion infringing music links from Google alone, on behalf of UK artists and labels, highlights the staggering scale of the problem of illegal sites, as well as BPI’s unwavering commitment to fighting for the rights of artists and their record labels.
”Under a code of practice BPI and MPAA negotiated with search engines in 2017, persistent illegal sites are now regularly demoted out of search results, and together with the legal actions we bring to block illegal sites, this has significantly improved the quality of results presented to consumers.
“The collaboration with search engines, including Google, sets a good example for online intermediaries and platforms, which must urgently take on greater responsibility to combat illegal content. Intermediaries such as advertising networks, brands, payment providers, hosting ISPs, domain registries and registrars should “know their customers” and avoid profiteering from piracy through providing business services to illegal sites. Platforms that host content should use available technology to prevent infringements before they occur. These measures should be enforced through a legal duty of care on intermediaries and platforms to take reasonable measures to avoid infringement of others’ rights.
”For too long we have accepted a reactive approach that places all the burden on creators to search for and police hundreds of millions of infringements of their rights across the entire internet. That approach cannot succeed. Instead we should expect reasonable, proactive, preventative measures by all online businesses, using technology and good business practices, to sweep the black market to the edges of the internet. This is achievable. All that is required is the political will on the part of platforms – or failing that, Government and regulators – to support creators by actively suppressing the illegal content that destroys careers and throttles the growth of our creative industries.”
Earlier this year The BPI welcomed an £80 million funding boost for music in schools.
