The private search engine, DuckDuckGo, has decided to remove pirate websites from its official search results. This includes even the popular YouTube-dl piracy tool used to download YouTube videos.
DuckDuckGo Extends Crackdown on Dodgy Content to Pirate Websites and Downloading Tools
According to the story by Engadget, DuckDuckGo has extended its crackdown on dodgy content. The move covers not just pirate websites (used to download content illegally), but also digital bootleggers as well.
TorrentFreak released a report regarding its discovery that DuckDuckGo no longer shows major pirate websites. The list of websites that no longer show on the search engine's results include 1337x, The Pirate Bay, and Fmovies.
Limited Search Results Remain for Certain Pirate Websites Like RarBG
When DuckDuckGo users try to search for the pirate websites, they will no longer be given results that show anything related to the domain. The ban also includes popular streaming and stream-ripping websites like 2conv and Flixtor.
Engadget, however, notes that other pirate outlets still show results that are now limited. An example of this is RarBG which shows a single result instead of its previous hundreds of thousands of search results before DuckDuckGo started to stop showing results for pirate websites.
Downloading Tool YouTube-dl Removed from DuckDuckGo Search Engine
Aside from just pirate websites, YouTube-dl, a site that doubles as a video download tool, also no longer shows up when searched on DuckDuckGo. Although YouTube-dl has made recent defenses when it comes to the downloading tool's legality, it no longer produces results when searched on the privacy search engine.
The arguments made against YouTube-dl by the RIAA paints the downloading tool "as a piracy tool." When it came to technical details, however, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, GitHub, and even some others were able to point out that the tool does not actually rip any material protected by DRM.
Why DuckDuckGo Might Have Decided to Remove Pirate Websites from Its Search Engine
The article by Engadget notes that they have requested DuckDuckGo to give a comment regarding its removal of pirate websites. Although no solid confirmation just yet, TorrentFreak notes that the issue might be regarding DuckDuckGo's liability for copyright violations.
The search engine officially removed "pirate bangs" which is a keyword used as a shortcut for pirate sites. The keyword has long been used since 2018 but with DuckDuckGo's removal of search results, it would be interesting to see how other search engines will decide to remove access to pirate websites.
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How DuckDuckGo Could Avoid Getting Tied Up in Copyright Issues
Engadget notes that aside DuckDuckGo's competitors like Microsoft and Google have already started to downrank search results that are piracy-related. Since the search engine is removing pirate websites, this could help protect it from costly copyright battles.
With piracy becoming a big issue, DuckDuckGo would be able to avoid the mess of getting tied up in copyright issues due to its removal of search results for pirate websites.
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This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Urian B.
