Weatherley Searches for Google Solution

IP Adviser to the Prime Minister, Mike Weatherley (pictured here on serious Government business with guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen) has published a report stating that Google need to lead on setting “responsible industry standards” for search engines on piracy.

Weatherley’s report provides clear recommendations about the roles that such companies, alongside Government and rights-holders should play in battling piracy, including ten key recommendations. These include Google speaking with rights holders about how to prioritise legitimate sites and search engines supporting The Wire influenced “Follow the money” initiative- This recently shifted focus to targeting sites that host and gain revenue from pirated material including advertisers.

BPI Chief Executive Geoff Taylor welcomed the report, saying: “Mike Weatherley’s report is a thorough and carefully considered contribution to the policy debate on the need for action to reduce the prominence of illegal websites in search results”.

The research reiterates that piracy costs the UK’s creative industries around £400m per year in lost revenue- though Weatherley is keen to point out that search engines aren’t the source of piracy but do “Play an important role in inadvertently guiding consumers towards illegal content and are well placed to be part of the solution”.

You can read the entire report here and a summary of the ten recommendations on Music Week here.

In related news, Pirate Bay Co-Founder Peter Sunde has been arrested in Sweden and is now set to serve the eight-month jail sentence he was handed for his role in running the notorious file-sharing site.

A spokeswoman for the Swedish National Police Board said: “We have been looking for him since 2012. He was given eight months in jail so he has to serve his sentence”. It is unclear if Google maps helped or hindered the search in tracking him down.