BPI Chairman Tony Wadsworth has told the record label trade body's AGM that the UK government's love affair "with big technology and big telecoms has cast a shadow over our home-grown creative success and it's time to redress the balance. We have earned the right to be treated seriously and fairly by government. The technology world has to also come to the party either willingly, or kicking and screaming" with Wadsworth saying Google had failed to do enough to remove links to unlicensed content for its search results, and to ensure copyright infringing websites do not benefit from its ad networks. The BPI Chair continued: "When consumers are encouraged towards illegal content by search engines, where reputable advertisers plough millions towards websites that make their money from our music and return not a penny to the creators, the government needs to step in". Also calling on the current government to do more was guest speaker Harriet Harman MP, the Shadow Secretary Of State For Culture, Media And Sport, who called for more action in getting her party's DEA enacted, and also added "Google and other technology companies need to do more with the content creators to better signpost legitimate search and block illegal sites. Search engines like Google are highly trusted, and there's no way of telling, as an average consumer, what is an illegal site. They could also do more to stifle the income of pirate websites by stopping advertising on illegal sites. And I want to see the government getting on with implementing Labour's Digital Economy Act. And while I'm pleased that OfCom published their code for consultation [on three-strikes] last week - it will still be 2014 before any warning letters are sent out".
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