‘Free movies’ site must be blocked by BT

In what’s been dubbed a legal landmark, the UK high courts have ordered British Telecom to block access to Newzbin2, a file sharing site that illegally offers free movies to download. It was accused by several Hollywood studios of file sharing "on a grand scale".

BT have 14 days to block access.

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Hollywood giants including Universal, Warner Bros., Fox, Paramount, Disney and Columbia brought the case to UK courts. They argued that the site was making huge profits from the work of others.

According to The Guardian, Justice Arnold yesterday ruled that the site breached copyright law and ordered that BT block its 6 million internet customers from accessing Newzbin2. In a further blow to online pirates, the court order also allowed blocking of any IP addresses used subsequently by Newzbin2 to attempt to circumvent the block.

The studios will also be boosted by the ruling that BT will have to cover the cost of the block.

Lord Puttnam, President of the Film Distributors Association and the man behind such classics as 'Chariots of Fire', said: "The law is clear. Industrial online piracy is illegal and can be stopped"

While the Motion Pictures Association (MPA) managing director Chris Marcich said: "Securing the intervention of the ISPs was the only way to put the commercial pirates out of reach for the majority of consumers...

"This move means that we can invest more in our own digital offerings, delivering higher quality and more variety of products to the consumer."

The ruling could create a precedent and force other internet providers to block file sharing sites. Film studios and music companies currently lose billions of pounds a year because of online piracy.

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The news comes with a further boost for the industry in Russia where, according to The Hollywood Reporter, a number of studios have levelled a £787 million lawsuit at a Moscow-based couple, Andrei and Natalia Lopukhov, accused of illegally distributing films online.

The case is the biggest ever copyright lawsuit in Russia.