Hollywood film-makers' battle against UK pirate site takes BT to court

The Motion Picture Association (MPA) has filed for an injunction against BT, UK's largest internet service provider, forcing it to cut off customer's access to a website called Newzbin that promotes piracy.

The MPA is the industry body that represents movie studios such as Warner, Sony, Fox, Disney and Paramount. According to it, Newzbin makes more than £1 million a year by offering its subscribers links to movie, television, music and software downloads, TGDaily reported.

It was in 2010, when the MPA began its legal action against Newzbin and won a High Court order telling the site to take out material it hosted that breached copyright.

Soon after that Newzbin went into administration and within weeks, it reappeared under new management based out of the Seychelles.

Similar kind of blocking orders have been won in other countries. However, it is the first time it has been tried in UK.

In 2004, BT introduced a site-blocking system known as Cleanfeed. It was designed to stop access to child pornography sites. The Cleanfeed system is supplied by BT to other ISPs as well. This is why the MPA brought its action against the largest ISP in the UK.