14 DAY TRIAL // BT plans to challenge the Motion Picture Association's (MPA) request for an injunction that would force it to use its child abuse URL filter to block a file-sharing website.
After Usenet indexing website Newzbin overcame MPA's 2010 legal victory by changing owners, the Hollywood association is now trying to shut it down by blocking traffic to it.
TorrentFreak reported that MPA is scheduled to make a case this week for a High Court injunction that would force BT to block access to Newzbin by using technology it developed back in 2004 to filter abusive URLs supplied by the Internet Watch Foundation.
Even since back then the company has feared that a day might come when it will be asked to use its Cleanfeed system to police the Internet.
However, the ISP doesn't plan to accept this without a fight. V3.co.uk cites insider sources who claim that BT will challenge MPA's request in court during the three days of hearings.
This is the first case of its kind in UK and BT was targeted because it is the largest ISP in the country, with over 5.6 million subscribers, and already has the technology in place.
Law experts believe that MPA's attempt will fail, because it is using the Copyright Act to push the action which doesn't have strong provisions in this respect. However, the UK government is currently working on new legislation called the Digital Economy Act, which will address exactly this particular type of problem.
Therefore, even if it doesn't happen now, it will probably happen sometime in the future. The owners of Newzbin have already taken some measures by creating a hidden service on the TOR anonymity network. This service can only be accessed from a TOR-enabled browser or through a site like tor2web.org which acts as a bridge.