The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is asking the British High Court to force UK ISP BT to block access to the popular Usenet website, Newzbin.
The original UK based Newzbin website has already had its day in court, and lost, when it was ordered to be taken due to a High Court ruling, but later reappeared overseas as Newzbin2, supposedly with new owners.
Angered by the rebirth of Newzbin, the MPA now wants to block access to the website at the source, and is petitioning the high court to hand down an injunction against British ISP, BT, to force the ISP to block access to Newzbin. The MPA also wants BT to use its Cleanfeed blocking system, originally designed to block child pornography, to block websites that displeases the movie industry lobby group.
Meanwhile, in the US, the American arm of the MPA, the MPAA, is locked in a legal battle with file hosting firm, Hotfile. The MPAA is demanding Hotfile hand over an extensive list of information, which the file hosting company has called "murder by litigation".
Not only does the MPAA want IP addresses of *all* Hotfile users and affiliates, even those that did not upload or download infringing content, it also wants every version of Hotfile's source code, presumably to check if Hotfile actives encourages or discourages piracy, something Hotfile says they cannot do as it would be handing over trade secrets.
The MPAA also wants all of Hotfile's financial data.
And if Hotfile were to comply with all MPAA demands, by handing over their entire user database it seems, the company itself could face lawsuits from its own users for breach of privacy and user agreements, which could ruin the company. Something that, perhaps, the MPAA would welcome.
Hotfile has stated they are willing to comply with MPAA demands up to a certain point, including providing user information, but with the crucial IP address and other private data redacted, and the company has appealed to the courts to curb these "over-reaching" demands.
Do you approve of ISPs blocking websites, and do you think this will be effective in stopping piracy? Do you also agree that Hotfile should hand over every piece of data it holds, including all user details, financial details and even source code, to the MPAA? Post your answers in this news article's comments section, or in this forum thread:
http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=94990
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