The actual judgement for those interested (and not the very biased media release) can be found via BAILii at http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2011/1981.html

From first reading it looks worrying and it seems that the recent UK decision of L’Oreal v eBay (C-324/09) has been used here as well. Very worrying.

[at 199] “A point which underlies some of the submissions made by counsel for BT, although it was not relied upon by him as a free-standing ground of objection to the proposed order, is the question of proportionality. As set out above, counsel for the Studios accepted that the proposed order engaged the Article 10 ECHR rights of BT’s subscribers, and accordingly that it was incumbent on the Studios to satisfy the court that the interference with those rights was proportionate having regard to the Studios’ rights protected by Article 1 of the First Protocol. The requirement for proportionality is also laid down by the judgments of the Court of Justice in Promusicae and L’Or?al v eBay. [emphasis added]

200. In general, I am satisfied that the order sought by the Studios is a proportionate one. It is necessary and appropriate to protect the Article 1 First Protocol rights of the Studios and other copyright owners. Those interests clearly outweigh the Article 10 where rights of the users of Newzbin2, and even more clearly outweigh the Article 10 rights of the operators of Newzbin2. They also outweigh BT’s own Article 10 rights to the extent that they are engaged. The order is a narrow and targeted one, and it contains safeguards in the event of any change of circumstances. The cost of implementation to BT would be modest and proportionate.”[emphasis added]
[Note: Article 10 is the freedom of expression under the European Convention on Human Rights]

Interestingly the TD community might like to look at paragraph 20 entitled Factual Background

The Studios relied on two recent studies of the scale of the problem so far as the film and television industries are concerned. A study by Ipsos MediaCAT dated April 2010 analysing the scale of film and television piracy in the UK in 2009 estimated the overall loss from film piracy at ?477 million and the overall loss from television piracy at ?58 million. A study by Tera Consultants dated March 2010 concluded that in 2008 the audio and audiovisual industries in the UK lost almost 670 million euros in revenues to physical and digital piracy, with the larger proportion of that lost revenue attributable to digital piracy.

Before we all go off and state, that study was totally bogus and why didn’t BT make this statement the next paragraph at 21:

This evidence has not been challenged by BT. Nevertheless, I cannot ignore the analysis of Professor Ian Hargreaves in his recent report commissioned by the Prime Minister, Digital Opportunity: A Review of Intellectual Property and Growth (May 2011). In paragraph 8.9 he stated that:

“? in the Review’s four months of evidence gathering, we have failed to find a single UK survey that is demonstrably statistically robust. For many surveys, methodology is not available for peer review.” [emphasis added]

As he explained, there are a number of problems with trying to quantify the scale of online copyright infringement. He went on to summarise the findings of a considerable number of studies both in the UK and elsewhere, and to describe the problems with them. In paragraph 8.17, he attempted to quantify the scale of copyright infringement expressed as a percentage of the economy as a whole using industry estimates, and concluded that “copyright infringement appears to account for just under 0.1 per cent of economic activity”. In paragraph 8.19 he considered a study by Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy that estimated the losses from piracy as equivalent to 1.24% of the contribution made by the core copyright industries to the UK economy, and concluded that 1.24% was “at the upper end of probability”. His overall conclusion at paragraph 8.23 was as follows:

“? Certainly ? many creative businesses are experiencing turbulence, which translates into fears about the further, future impact of copyright infringement on sales, profitability and sources of investment. However, at the level of the whole economy or even at the level of whole creative business sectors, the measured impacts to date are not as stark as is sometimes suggested by the language used to describe them. That said, copyright infringement is a stubborn fact of the digital landscape which might well get worse and which justifies serious government effort in identifying the right mix of measures to address it. “

This means the next paragraph of the judgement will make the MAFIAA extremely worried where evidence is not clear and robust, similar to what the court stated as obiter in AFACT v iiNet (2010)

I accept that online copyright infringement is a serious problem for copyright owners such as the Studios and the other rightholders who support this application, but in general it is one whose impact is difficult to quantify with any confidence. As will appear, however, in the present case there is fairly good evidence of the scale of the wrongdoing.[emphasis added]

It seems therefore, and this is only a VERY quick analysis and read through by myself, that the court had sufficient quantifiable and robust evidence to proceed with this Specific order in this case and this case alone with regard to newsbin2. Other cases will not be so easy against other entities even similar to Newsbin based on that paragraph 21.