The Motion Picture Association (MPA), an association of six major movie studios, has moved to UK court demanding BT to blocks its customers from accessing a file-sharing website that hosts pirated versions of popular movies.
If the court grants the order, BT Group will have to block access to its customers to the Newzbin.com site, which makes money through copyright infringement, the MPA said.
The success of MPA would also lead to internet service providers (ISPs) helping content makers in tackling pirate sites in future.
MPA said in statement this is the first case in UK to use Section 97A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act to try to get ISPs to prevent copyright infringement by using their services.
Around 700,000 members are using Newzbin.co site for movies download, as well as for download of music and TV shows. The operators of the website are claimed to be making GBP1 million a year from the illegally copied material that it features.
Without commenting on the issue, BT confirmed it would be in court later, while the ISPs Association said it would not comment until a decision is made by the court.
