A judge at the High Court has just ruled that BT must block access to Newzbin 2. This is yet another important stage in the dismantling of the internet we’ve used over the last few years. ISP’s have, generally, always allowed their customers to do whatever they please on the internet, but now it’s starting to come apart more and more. Bandwidth capping, adult filters, protocol tweaking, traffic shaping and now – blocking entire websites.
Strangely the courts have told BT to use their “CleanFeed” technology to block access to Newzbin 2. The technology is currently used by BT to stop access to sites featuring child abuse and is not designed for blocking sites like this.
This ruling means that other sites could be blocked easily. Justic Arnold told BT that..
“In my judgment it follows that BT has actual knowledge of other persons using its service to infringe copyright: it knows that the users and operators of Newbin2 infringe copyright on a large scale, and in particular infringe the copyrights of the Studios in large numbers of their films and television programmes.”
Due to this ruling you will probably see other services blocked soon enough. No more torrents, no more dodgy websites – perhaps a complete block to sites offering files to download.
Link – BBC News