UK PM's adviser urges Google to do more to curb online piracy

The British Prime Minister's intellectual property adviser has said Google should do more to curb online piracy, and has urged the search giant to lead the charge in curbing the trend.

In a new report, member of parliament Mike Weatherley suggested it is up to search engines to take the fight to copyright theft, putting the indomitable market leader Google in the crosshairs.

His recommendations, the Guardian reports, will be presented to British business secretary Vince Cable - and one idea is to stop advertising cashflow for websites that appear to be making a profit on piracy.

Weatherley does admit it's unlikely action from the top search engines alone will be enough to quell online piracy - but says in the report Google should, as the main provider of search in the UK, "take the lead in setting responsible industry standards for search."

Even with considerable pressure from the content industry and politicians, critics will assert this is simply not the way the web works - and democratizing access to paid content, a la streaming services such as Netflix, is the model to plump for.

Weatherley's recommendations also include an education campaign targeted at consumers, and putting pressure on Google to give favorable rankings to legal web services.