A British judge has ordered BT, the United Kingdom’s largest ISP, to block access to Newzbin2, a website that makes Hollywood content available to its users illegally. The order also made a provision for blocking access even if Newzbin2 moved to another IP address or URL.
“The judge backed the argument brought by a coalition of Hollywood studios, including Warner Bros, Paramount, Disney, Universal, Fox and Columbia, which have argued that Newzbin2 has made millions profiting from exploiting other people’s work,” reports The Guardian.
This order may set a precedent for blocking of other illegal filesharing websites in the UK.
“Securing the intervention of the ISPs was the only way to put the commercial pirates out of reach for the majority of consumers,” said Chris Marcich, president and managing director of MPA Europe. “This move means that we can invest more in our own digital offerings, delivering higher quality and more variety of products to the consumer.”
Britain’s High Court ruled in favor of Hollywood studios on Thursday, forcing Internet service provider British Telecom to block access to the Newzbin2 website, a hub for pirated media content.
Newzbin2 has more than 700,000 users, and opened last spring after its predecessor, Newzbin, was shut down by court order. The members-only site aggregates illegally copied material found on Usenet discussion forums.
“In my judgement it follows that BT has actual knowledge of other persons using its service to infringe copyright,” said Justice Arnold in his ruling. “It knows that the users and operators of Newzbin2 infringe copyright on a large scale, and in particular infringe copyrights of the studios in large numbers of their films and television programs. It knows that the users of Newzbin2 include BT subscribers and it knows those users use its service to receive infringing copies of copyright works made available to them by Newzbin2.”
The suit was hailed as a victory for creative industries by the Motion Picture Association, which repped the studios in the suit. The ruling marks an important precedent, opening the doors for copyright holders to call on ISPs to help prevent infringement.
Chris Marcich, MPAA president and managing director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa said: “This ruling from Justice Arnold is a victory for millions of people working in the U.K. creative industries and demonstrates that the law of the land must apply online.”
