Village Roadshow chief executive Graham Burke.Credit:Eddie Jim
Village Roadshow chief executive Graham Burke said there had so far been 832 sites blocked by the multibillion-dollar search platform,as part of a new collaborative approach between Google,internet service providers and content owners.
Mr Burke previously accused the US tech giant of"facilitating crime"for allowing pirate websites to be found in search results andtold Google to "sue" him over the comments.He has been arguing for changes in the way the tech company handles illegally shared content over the last five years.
His movie business has lost millions of dollars due to piracy of hit films likeLion andMad Max:Fury Roadand he has repeatedly warned that local screen productions and creative industries have been decimated by those choosing to illegally download rather than pay for their entertainment.
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Since 2015,there have been laws allowing copyright holders to obtain a court order to force internet service providers to block pirate websites. Roadshow Films was the first company to make a case under the site blocking regime.
Last year,these measures were tightened up to restrict the bypassing of the blocks and to enable copyright holders to get an injunction against a search engine.
Now,Google has agreed to'de-index'these websites when they have been blocked by internet providers regardless of whether or not the court order applies to the search giant.