This week sees a major copyright infringement court case begin in the UK”s High Court. The case has been brought by the international arm of US film trade body, the MPAA, which wants BT to close off access to Newzbin2, a website that it alleges links to hundreds of pirated movies and music.

The MPAA is backed by Hollywood studios including Warner Bros, Fox, Disney and Paramount Pictures. If successful, it would enable numerous other IP owning companies to go to the courts in pursuit of a blocking order.

Movie-makers are adamant that the existence of sites like Newzbin2 are bad for their business, because films are made available to the public without any money coming back in the direction of the content creator. Chris Marcich, MPA president for EMEA, said: “Newzbin has no regard for UK law and it is unacceptable that it continues to infringe copyright on a massive and commercial scale.”

The government is also looking at ways to prevent illegal file-sharing. Communications minister, Ed Vaizey, is talking with the industry about a framework which would see ISPs block access to websites on a list drawn up by rights owners.