According to a BBC report, the UK Cultural Secretary Jeremy Hunt has urged Google as well as other search engines to block, from their search results, those websites that contain content that infringes copyrights.

As per the report, Hunt – addressing the Royal Television Society - said that organisations such as advertisers and credit card companies should also discontinue their dealings with sites which host pirated products.

Pointing out the fact that the Government does not allow the sale of certain goods in the High Street shops, neither does it permit shops to be set up solely for selling counterfeited items, Hunt said that, in the same way, the authorities should also be entitled to make it increasingly difficult for consumers to access websites which are dedicated to copyright-infringing material.

Despite the fact that the online blocking of piracy sites will likely not happen any time in the near future, Google has revealed that it has already started taking the requisite measures for removing copyright-infringing sites from its search results, by allowing the copyright owners to share information about the ‘ne'er-do-well’ websites.

Meanwhile, noting that “unlawfully distributing copyrighted material is theft,” Hunt – who also is looking at the ISPs to take on the responsibility of making it increasingly difficult for Internet users to access piracy sites – said that piracy is “a direct assault on the freedoms and rights of creators of content.”