UK Blocks Newzbin

Several internet service providers in the United Kingdom have received letters asking them to block access to Newzbin. If you are not familiar with Newzbin it is a British Usenet service used to index Usenet content. The controversy started after efforts by Hollywood companies like Fox, Universal, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Disney, and Columbia began to push for legal action in spring of 2010 in British Courts. The website itself hosts torrent files much like the Pirate Bay which aren't the actually illegal files themselves but contain information on how to find the network seeding the illegal file. As blocks go into place users begin moving onto other methods like bit torrent proxies, vpn servers, and encryption standards. Many rights group argue although over 90 percent of the content on these index servers is clearly illegal and copyrighted the courts orders just force users underground into newer more decentralized methods. And rights groups claim that there is almost no affect on the users downloading illegal content that it just takes away rights from normal internet users and pushes more control into government on shutting down internet services. No alternative has yet to be proposed from rights groups except to ignore the courts request. We should note that the website newzbin.com and thepiratebay.com are both hosted physically in the country of Sweden where a British court has no jurisdiction in pulling the plug. Also the information available did not say if the movie companies attempted to contact websites directly as that would be one of the best solutions.