A new clause to the UK's Digital Economy Bill would force search engines to conclude voluntary agreements with copyright owners. Apparently, the Bill is broadening in scope, and the role of search engines is now on the agenda with a new clause titled “Power to provide for a code of practice related to copyright infringement”. In short words, the clause forces search engines come to a voluntary agreement with copyright owners on how best to fight piracy.

If the clause was adopted, the Secretary of State would be entitled to investigate disputes over a search engine’s compliance with the code of practice, appoint a regulator, and impose fines or other sanctions in case of non-compliance.

The UK Minister for Intellectual Property has recently chaired a series of roundtable discussions and meetings between copyright owners and the largest search engines. The content creators proposed a voluntary code of practice, provisioning for fewer than 1% link to illegal websites in the top 3 results, fewer than 5% in the top 10; and fewer than 10% in the top 20.

Google, Yahoo and Bing are not very happy about the role they’re being asked to play, but the copyright owners point out that they just want search engines to do what ISPs already do – co-operate to take action against websites that have been ruled by the High Court to be infringing. However, it is believed that the tech giants take little responsibility for the fact that listings can predominantly consist of illegal content. Therefore, the new fines could help the search engines to become more compliant.

Thanks to TorrentFreak for providing the source of the article.