14 DAY TRIAL // The United Kingdom is planning to make Google comply to its anti-piracy rulebook even if the company doesn't want it, by setting down laws.
It seems that removing millions upon millions of links from its search results and doing backflips to accommodate copyright holders isn't enough, as lawmakers plan to make sure Google does their bidding with or without its express will.
Last week, news came that Google, alongside other search engines, and copyright holders had reached somewhat of a decision that they would roll out a new set of coding rules on their platforms in order to prevent piracy as best as possible.
In the event of Google and the other backing down from this decision, an amendment to the Digital Economy Bill will make sure to impose it anyway.
So far, everyone's hope has been that the government would stay out of this fight between search engines, which merely provide a way for people to find things on the Internet, and copyright holders, which seem to believe Google is the Internet itself.
Following last week's announcement, however, that hope flew out the window as Baroness Buscombe revealed that Intellectual Property Office officials chaired a round-table meeting between search engines and representatives of the creative industry. "While there are still elements of detail to be settled, the group is now agreed on the key content of the code and I expect an agreement to be reached very soon," Buscombe said on the matter.
The amendment that gives the govt power over Google
The "Code of practice on search engines and copyright infringement," however, is the backup in case the agreement falls. This is an amendment to the Digital Economy Bill and gives the Secretary of State the power to step in and force companies such as Google to comply with whatever they want.
"The Secretary of State may impose by order a code of practice for search engine providers with the purpose of minimizing the availability and promotion of copyright infringing services, including those which facilitate copyright infringement by their users," reads the amendment.
This type of action has no precedent and it would give the government incredible power over companies such as Google.