BT fights web-blocking move by Motion Picture Assocciation

BT will face the Motion Picture Association in the High Court today as legal proceedings are begun to force the internet service provider (ISP) to block access to file-sharing website Newzbin.

The test case could have huge ramifications in the fight against illegal file sharing and for consumers.

If the Motion Picture Association of (MPA) is successful in its web blocking bid, it would set a precedent that other rights holders could use to force all UK ISPs to block sites suspected of facilitating illegal file sharing

In a statement this morning BT would only confirm that it "will be appearing in court, following an application for an injunction by members of the MPA. We have no further comment to make at this stage".

For rights holders, blocking websites they feel violate their copyright could be more effective than trying to take these sites offline. Newzbin, which was hosted in the UK was shut down by the High Court last year, but simply resurrected offshore as Newzbin2, outside British jurisdiction.

A spokesman for Newzbin told the Daily Telegraph that legal attempt so shut the site down would fail because "we can run faster than them [the MPA] and shapeshift".

Chris Marcich, president and managing director (EMEA), MPA said the legal action was not an attack on ISPs but the fact that "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.

"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 UK Government has also put forward controversial web-blocking plans.

Leaked documents sent to rights campaigner James Firth and published by the Open Rights Group, showed that closed-door meetings held by Ed Vaizey MP, the Minister for Communication, Culture and the Creative Industries, ISPs and rights holders, have discussed introducing a voluntary scheme for ISPs to block suspected sites.

In his blog James Firth quotes a source very close to the situation who told him "whatever you think about copyright enforcement, this isn't the right way to draft public policy – in closed-door meetings discussing confidential documents with selected attendees."