A High Court judge has ordered BT to block access to file-sharing website Newzbin2, in what has become a landmark case for the Internet industry.
The ruling is expected to set a precedent for other Internet service providers, forcing them to effectively become web police and paving the way for further website blocking.
“BT has actual knowledge of other persons using its service to infringe copyright,” said Justice Arnold in his ruling. “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 ruled that BT must use its blocking technology CleanFeed – which is currently used to prevent access to websites featuring child sexual abuse – to block access to Newzbin2.
The injunction was filed under Section 97A of the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, which provides for possible injunctions against Internet intermediaries.
The High Court hearing began on 28 June and ran for three days. BT reportedly argued in court that if the judge granted the injunction, it would be the “thin end of the wedge” leading to hundreds of injunctions being applied for by content owners.
The decision is seen as a great victory for the British creative industries, which reportedly lose around £400 million per year due to web piracy. However, digital rights activists regard the ruling as a huge blow.
“Website blocking is pointless and dangerous,” said Peter Bradwell, copyright campaigner at the Open Rights Group, in response to the court’s decision. “These judgements won’t work to stop infringement or boost creative industries. And there are serious risks of legitimate content being blocked and service slowdown.”
The Internet Service Providers’ Association (ISPA) also raised concerns about over-blocking, ease of circumvention and increased encryption.
“Blocking is not a silver bullet to stop online copyright infringement,” said Nicholas Lansman, ISPA secretary general. “Rather, as the government-commissioned Hargreaves Review recently found, there should be more focus on offering innovative, fully-licensed content services to give consumers what they are clearly demanding.”
Newzbin has been a pioneer of searches of the Internet’s venerable Usenet newsgroup discussion forum system, creating technology such as NZB, an XML-based file format which allows faster searching of the vast quantities of Usenet content online.
Following this ruling, the operator of the site, Newzbin Ltd, went into administration. However, a clone of the site – dubbed Newzbin2 – emerged on the net soon after, hosted in Sweden and apparently registered in the US.
Earlier today, a representative of the website told BBC News that Newzbin2 would attempt to “ensure continuity of service to our UK users” if a judge ruled against it again. He also warned that keeping the site up may involve attempts to break BT’s CleanFeed filter.
BT is expected to appeal the injunction – particularly as BT was one of the ISPs (alongside TalkTalk) that spearheaded the High Court fight to overturn the UK Digital Economy Act’s copyright measures. Under the terms of the Act, ISPs could be expected to hand over the IP addresses of anyone caught committing online copyright infringement to rights holders.
However, the Digital Economy Act faces widespread opposition from within the industry; and the United Nations said in June that the Act, with its ability to cut off Internet access, is a “violation” of the right to free expression.
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Simon Levine, Joint Global Head of DLA Piper’s Intellectual Property & Technology Group, commented:
"This case is of great interest as it is a rare UK view on what ISPs can be required to do in relation to infringing content online. While they are generally protected from being directly liable themselves, and clearly cannot be expected to patrol the internet exhaustively, ISPs can be required to take certain steps once put on notice of infringing content which they are either hosting or enabling users to access.
"The case also emphasizes the challenges to content owners in the age of the high-speed internet and the cloud. If Newzbin2 succeeds with its threatened disabling of BT's blocking system, the MPA will be left having to try and force BT to improve its system (how far that is possible will depend in part on technology not law), or to seek to pursue Newzbin2, as a moving target, in far-flung jurisdictions where litigation may be slow and difficult.”
And another comment by email, from Julian Heathcote Hobbins, General Counsel of the Federation Against Software Theft (FAST);
“This Ruling is a watershed, and legitimate online sites will be encouraged, as one cannot compete with online piracy where paid for product is available for free. It is no different in principle to excluding counterfeit goods in shops on the high street. This has to be welcomed.”
“The Performing Rights Society For Music (PRS) has been campaigning for some time now for legitimate search engines to highlight differences between legal and illegal content. This initiative, which aims to flag links to sites that offer legal and illegal downloads by either green or red coding, is one we fully support.”
“The decision to pursue the website via ISPs represents a change of tactic for rights’ holders and one that does not represent an attack on service providers.”
“There is no doubt that a re-establishing of the law around the issue of internet infringements is having a notable impact on behaviour. FAST has campaigned hard in this field and has often cited research from the media law firm Wiggin to support this fact. When challenged, the overwhelming majority of file-sharers cease. Our stance has always been one of carrot and stick – ensuring that customers are educated on the economic impact of piracy as well as advocating compliance with the law protecting creators. The proliferation of infringements can only be negative on growth."
its the start of a slippery slope, leading to china style oppression.
This will never work, if the owner of newzbin2.com has any sense, he will mirror the site newbin3.com, newzbin4.com and so on
And I hope to go he does - F*ck hollywood