I have nothing to declare apart from a chocolate eclair - Oscar Wild Thing
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BT must block Newzbin2 within 14 days and pay costs
A UK COURT HAS RULED that BT must block user access to file-sharing web site Newzbin2 within 14 days, must pay for implementing the web site blocking and must also pay the legal costs of the case.
Today's judgement was eagerly awaited since the original ruling in July told internet service providers (ISPs) that they could be ordered to block access to web sites that share content found to infringe copyright.
BT challenged the July decision, claiming it is not responsible for how users employ its service, but ultimately this proved fruitless, as the court ruled that BT must implement the web site blocking within a fortnight.
The ruling also establishes a precedent for the costs of implementation, which the court said fall under the E-Commerce Directive, leaving the burden of web site blocking costs with the ISPs. BT has estimated the initial cost of implementation at about £5,000 and £100 for each subsequent notification. Since BT challenged the earlier ruling it was also ordered to pay the litigation costs of the case.
"Copyright owners can take a great deal of comfort from today's decision," said Simon Baggs, partner and head of IP/Rights Protection at the Wiggin law firm. "The court has conclusively recognised the critical role that ISPs can be required to play in preventing infringement of copyright using their services."
"Today the Court determined the details of the blocking order specific to BT and the Newzbin website resulting from the Court's judgment in July," a BT spokesperson told The INQUIRER. "It is helpful to have the order now and the clarity that it brings."
Last month Newzbin2 released an update to its software that it claimed will allow it to circumvent the BT block. If this is successful we wonder if BT will be forced to constantly change its blocking measures to keep up with the Newzbin2 developers.
Lord Puttnam, President of Film Distributors' Association, welcomed the news, along with a load of other rights holders, publishers and media firms.
"This is a very significant day for the UK's creative industries," he said. "The law is clear. Industrial online piracy is illegal and can be stopped." µ
Tags: Internet
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Well congrats,
What a complete waste of time this process has been, cant i just use a web based Proxy to go around this? Or VPN? oh wait yes....?
All this is going to achieve is a percentage of clients leaving BT (who already applied some serious P2P throttling and shaping to deter people)
These people need to realize that this is no longer the 1900s, and to find away to integrate themselves as part of the P2P world rather than fight it with every breath.
Until they can reach an agreement where they get yes maybe a smaller margin (but please consider they will have 0% manufacturing costs) this will progress, P2P has always delivered the newest of film (poor quality) direct to the home. No film industry has clocked this? Hell i would pay a few quid to watch it as i please for a one time stream at home than pay £10 just to get in a cinema). Online streaming also means fewer employees, no building so no bills. So Profit margin wise is probably surprisingly close.
This is a terrible precedent. It has created the seeds of an appalling situation that will stifle the Internet in the UK for years to come.
Now all that anyone needs to to is phone up an ISP, demand that they block some website and threaten to take them to court if they don't.
The ISPs now have two choices in that circumstance. 1) Look at the website, decide that the request is bunkum, go to court, lose, pay costs, block the website; or 2) block the website.
They're going to to have to pick option 2 everytime regardless of the actual content of the website concerned and regardless of the merit of the blocking request. That is not going to be a good situation for anyone, not even copyright holders.
For example, what happens if News Corp phones up BT claiming that the BBC is infringing it's copyright, please block the BBC? What's the ISP to do?
It won't take the nastier cretins out there to work out that they can harm a competitor's business by getting the ISPs to cut off their website. Alright, big outfits are probably not going to be clobbered this way, but what about the small outfits who would then have to go to court to get their legitimate business back online?
Puttnam is a complete dullard who can't see past the end of his withered nose.
This is great news!
Does this ruling set a precedence motorists can use to fight fines?
It's the car's fault I was speeding, the manufacturer should be responsible!
Taken further, I think Lord Puttnam should be held responsible for fines if his ruling is circumvented.
Lord Puttnam is clueless to how technology works, and is waisting everybody's time and money.
WinMX forever!
"... Industrial online piracy is illegal and can be stopped."
I think it's a bit early to go around stating this can be stopped. Even with the IPs co-operation it's only going to be a matter of time before this website or another appears again or is hosted by a different IP. All this does is waste the tax payer, the IP and the corps money. The internet allows free transfer of data by design its about time businesses realised that and started to use it to their advantage instead of wasting money trying to fight it.
What about the other ISPs?
What about the other piracy sites?
Why do they bother?