Google acts to combat illegal file sharing

Google plans to get tougher with online copyright infringement.

The search engine giant said it will make a number of changes as part of an anti-priacy initiative, which has been broadly welcomed by the music and movie industries.

It will build tools to make it easier for rights holders to submit take-down requests for Google products that may be infringing copyright; starting with Blogger and Web Search - and will also reduce its average response time to these to less than 24 hours.

The search giant said it will act on “reliable" take-down requests under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA).

“We are a US company and operate the same notice and take-down process globally,” a Google representative said; pointing out Google’s process also complies with the European Union E-Commerce Directive.

Youtube, which has its own Content ID system and typically takes down content in significantly less than 24 hours, is not covered in this announcement.

Frances Moore, chief executive of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), which represents the recorded music industry worldwide said: “Google's announcement is a very positive step in helping tackle the huge problem of online piracy in order to grow the legitimate music business.

“Google and other intermediaries have a pivotal role in creating an online environment where the rights of artists and creators are respected and effectively enforced.

"We look forward to seeing the concrete actions that will result from this welcome announcement.”

However, people will be able to lodge appeals if they believe their content was wrongly removed. Google said it would also improve its counter-notice tools.

It will also tweak its Autocomplete search feature that suggests words as the user types. This will now block terms closely associated with piracy, such as 'torrent', from appearing in Autocomplete.

It will not block the search results themselves, however, and these will still appear but the user will have to type in the full search in the search bar.

The search engine will improve its Adsense anti-piracy review, working with rights holders to identify and, when appropriate, expel infringers from the Adsense programme.

Finally, Google will work to promote authorised online content by bringing it up the search rankings. This could mean, for example, featuring previews of tracks from legal music sites.