Newzbin Is Liable for Downloading, Court Rules
A United Kingdom court has ruled that Newzbin is liable for material downloaded by users onto its website in violation of copyright law, finding that editors assisted them in flouting the law and routinely did not follow purported Newzbin rules about what could be posted on the site.
The website, which indexes and collates postings to Usenet groups, had contended that Newzbin was comparable to Internet service providers such as Google that simply serve as a content conduit. However, the High Court of Justice in London sided with a group of Hollywood movie studios that brought the suit, finding that Newzbin had participated in infringement and promising that an injunction would soon be issued, according to Out-Law.com and Torrent Freak.
“It is the first case of its kind on when a service provider over the Internet will be liable for authorizing copyright infringement by others, so it is of significant interest to ISPs and service providers who’ve always had this nagging worry about to what extent they can be caught up in the infringing activities that go on by people using their services,” attorney Kim Walker tells Out-Law.com. His law firm, Pinsent Masons, is behind the blog.
Additional coverage:
Usenet Shack: “Newzbin v. MPAA: An interview with the Usenet indexing site’s legal team, weeks away from court”
