With a Friday post on Google’s official blog stating that the Internet search giant has decided to change its ‘search algorithms’ so as to favor those websites which offer legitimate copyrighted music, movies, and TV, the move underscores a victory for leading media firms that have been fighting to curb online piracy.

Google’s move to cater to copyrights implies that the company will begin penalizing the websites which are suspected of improperly posting copyrighted material; with the ‘search algorithms’ – which ascertain the ranking of websites in search results - being altered by the company to take into consideration the number of valid copyright removal notices that have been received by the offending websites.

Disclosing that, from next week onwards, Google's Web search algorithms will take into account the number of legitimate copyright removal notices received for a particular site, the company’s top search executive Amit Singhal said in the blog post that sites receiving high numbers of removal notices will likely appear lower in the search results.

Describing Google’s move as a "potentially significant development," Cary Sherman – Chairman and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) – said that the Google’s decision to cater to copyrights is a notable advance “in the right direction.”

Further adding that media companies had been asking Google to take such a step from quite some time, Sherman said Google’s move was an indication of “a new willingness to value the rights of creators."