Google to face Government pressure over piracy

The Government is to press the UK's most popular search engine Google to block copyright infringing websites in search results.

The move comes after the Government postponed planning a system that would block copyright-infringing sites without having to go to court.

The Government is expected to call for search engines to eliminate such sites from results, which in turn will cut off pirate sites' revenue.

According to a report in the Financial Times, Jeremy Hunt, the UK's Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, is expected to speak Wednesday night at the Royal Television Society's Cambridge Convention about making "life more difficult" for piracy sites.

Hunt will also touch upon why online piracy is no longer being tolerated. The Government is also planning to discuss addressing the issue in its Communications Bill to resolve the situation if no solution is established by the industry.

Many music, television and movie companies have pressed Google to remove copyright infringers from search results.

In the past year, Google has become more proactive when responding to requests about removing links to infringing websites.

According to Google general counsel Kent Walker in a recent blog post, Google has responded to "reliable" requests in a 24-hour time range, with some requests completed before the 24-hour target.

"In the coming months, we will be making these [takedown] tools available more broadly to those who have established a track record of submitting valid takedown requests," Walker said.

Google dominates the UK's search industry with 90 per cent market share.