Courts used to block pirate site

Film makers are going to court in a bid to block access to a site that hosts pirated versions of popular movies.

In a legal first, the Motion Picture Association (MPA) has applied for an injunction to make BT cut off access for its customers to Newzbin.

The members-only website aggregates a lot of the illegally copied material found on Usenet discussion forums.

The MPA wants BT to Block Newzbin with the same system that stops access to sites hosting child sex abuse images.

Massive scale

In a statement the MPA said it applied for the injunction against BT first because it is the largest ISP in the UK with more than 5.6 million customers.

In addition, BT supplies the site blocking system known as Cleanfeed to many other big UK ISPs. Success in the courts may mean the blocking spreads to those other operators.

The MPA is the international arm of the Motion Picture Association of America – the industry body representing movie studios such as Warner, Sony, Fox, Disney and Paramount.

It began its legal action against the UK-operated Newzbin in 2010 which resulted in the court telling the site to remove material it hosted that infringed copyright.

Newzbin went into administration soon after it lost in court. However, its assets, including web domains, were sold to new owners and a fresh version of the site has popped up operating out of the Seychelles.

“Newzbin has no regard for UK law and it is unacceptable that it continues to infringe copyright on a massive and commercial scale when it has been ordered to stop by the High Court,” said Chris Marcich, European president of the MPA, in a statement.

“We have explored every route to get Newzbin to take down the infringing material and are left with no option but to challenge this in the courts,” he said.

Court imposed blocks have been used widely throughout Europe but a success for the MPA would mark the first time the tactic has worked in the UK.

The UK’s Digital Economy Act does require ISPs to help rights holders identify users who may have downloaded music, software and videos illegally. However, it stops short of giving rights holders legal powers to pursue alleged pirates.

In a statement BT would only confirm that it would be appearing in court on 28 June “following an application for an injunction by members of the MPA”. It had no other comment to make.

The Internet Service Providers Association said it would not comment until the court had made its decision.