Elton John and Members of Led Zeppelin, The Who, Queen Blame Google, Other Search Engines, for Music Piracy

A who's who of British rock elite have joined forces, writing an open letter to British Prime Minister David Cameron attacking Google and other internet search engines, claim they're gateways to music piracy.

According to the Daily Mail, Elton John, The Who's Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend, Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant, Simon Cowell and Queen's Brian May are among those demanding Cameron implement guidelines set out in the 2010 Digital Economy Act which could sever internet access for those found illegally downloading material. The regulations aren't slated to take effect until 2014.

"As a digitally enhanced nation whose language is spoken around the world, Britain is well-positioned to increase its exports in the digitial age," the letter -- which was sent to the Daily Telegraph -- says. "Competition in the creative sector is in talent and innovation, not labour costs or raw materials. We can only realize this potential if we have a strong domestic copyright framework, so that British creative industries can earn a fair return on their huge investments creating original content. Illegal activity online must be pushed to the margins. This will benefit consumers, giving them confidence that they are buying safely online from legal websites.

Google has denied the accusations of indirectly assisting illegal downloading through its search engine, stating the site has removed millions of links monthly on request from various music publishers. But the musicians say the site and other search engines must do more to curb the practice.

The news follows a report last week by BBC World News that stated the BPI (the British music trade body) requested Google delete more links in the first six months of 2012 than in all of 2011.

"Once we've told Google 100,000 times that a particular site is illegal, we think that site shouldn't be coming above iTunes and Spotify in search results," BPI's Chief Executive Geoff Taylor said in the report.

"What our research shows is that however much you do on filtering, on blocking, what would be much more effective is to go after the money, to remove the financial underpinnings, the advertising, the payment processes from these sites," Google's UK Policy Manager Theo Bertram said in the report, adding that Google doesn't support piracy.