BT in court over piracy-blocking injunction

The Motion Picture Association has turned up the pressure on ISPs to block copyright-infringing content by seeking an injunction to force BT to stop allowing access to download site Newzbin.

The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is part of a group of rights holders that has been lobbying the Government to implement a web-blocking system to prevent people from accessing illegal download sites.

The latest proposals outline a voluntary scheme, but the MPA is also seeking an injunction directly targeting BT following earlier attempts to knock Newzbin offline.

We can run faster than the MPA, and shapeshift

It it unclear whether BT – Britain’s largest ISP – will fight the injunction. “We can confirm that we will be appearing in court, following an application for an injunction by members of the MPA,” BT said in a statement. “We have no further comment to make at this stage.”

MPA: “no option”

The MPA said it was taking the action because it could see no other way to close down Newzbin, which offers links to sites to download films and other digital content.

“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.

“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.”

The association started action against Newzbin last year, which resulted in the High Court telling the site to remove material it hosted that infringed copyright.

The company behind the site went into administration, but Newzbin soon re-emerged and is now running its servers from the Seychelles.

Newzbin claims the action will have no effect. A spokesperson named only as Mr White told The Telegraph that attempts to shut Newzbin down would fail because “we can run faster than them [the MPA] and shapeshift”.