Google, copyright holders agree on plan to starve piracy sites of cash

Google has followed through on its pledge to help copyright holders come up with a plan to starve piracy websites of funding. The Guardian reports that Google is kicking off a new initiative that will let copyright holders alert advertising firms when their ads are appearing on websites that distributed pirated content. The hope is that Google will use its significant clout in online advertising to pressure advertisers not to buy ads on alleged piracy websites, thus starving those websites of revenue. This past spring, a Google representative floated a similar plan during a forum discussion on preventing piracy and suggested that it was a better and more realistic alternative to outright blocking links to alleged piracy websites from search results.