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ARTICLE · 17 NOVEMBER 2011

BT Ordered To Block Website

Boyes Turner
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In a landmark ruling, the UK’s largest Internet Service Provider ("ISP") has been ordered by the High Court to block access to a website.

United KingdomIntellectual Property
Sarah Williamson
Sarah Williamson

In a landmark ruling, the UK's largest Internet Service Provider ("ISP") has been ordered by the High Court to block access to a website.

Twentieth Century Fox and five other well known film production companies and studios including Warner Bros and Disney, all of which are members of the Motion Picture Association of America Inc. ("MPA"), brought the action against British Telecommunications Plc ("BT") to try to prevent access to the Newzbin2 website. This website is a member's only website which collates large amounts of illegally copied material including films, music, and computer games.

This is an important test case as it is the first time that Section 97A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 ("the Act") has been used against an ISP. Section 97A of the Act gives courts the power to grant an injunction against an ISP if it had "actual knowledge" that someone had used its service to infringe copyright.

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