The Motion Picture Association (MPA) has won a court injunction to force BT to block Newzbin2, a site that peddles illegal film and music downloads to its members.
Arnold J. of the High Court of Justice handed the judgement down this morning, noting that the fact that BT knows that the copyright infringement is occurring is reason enough:
"In my judgment it follows that BT has actual knowledge of other persons using its service to infringe copyright: it knows that the users and operators of Newzbin2 infringe copyright on a large scale, and in particular infringe the copyrights of the Studios in large numbers of their films and television programmes, 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," he said.
Glee
The MPA is thrilled with the result, with Chris Marcich, its president and managing director for Europe calling it "a victory for millions of people working in the UK creative industries."
BT will now be forced to block the site, meaning that any customer using the company as their internet service provider will no longer be able to access Newzbin2.
The verdict falls in line with copyright holders' proposals to use site blocking to combat piracy in the UK, which have been under discussion with Ed Vaizey, the UK's minister for culture.
