Looks like it's zero hour, United Kingdom style, for the world's best known BitTorrent file sharing site. BPI, the UK's top music trade group, has asked British Telecom (BT) to start blocking the Pirate Bay, or face a court request.

"If BT will not agree to block voluntarily, then it has been asked to consent to a court order," BPI warns. The association says it is acting along with several other entities. A court order would give BT 14 days to filter out the site.

BT has acknowledged that it has the missive, but won't act until the matter goes to law:

"We can confirm we are now in receipt of a letter from the BPI. BT is considering its response. In line with the Newzbin judgment, a court order will be needed before any blocking could begin. BT is currently focused on implementation of that order."

The studios have made it clear

Three months ago a judge told BT to start blocking subscribers from Newzbin2, a private Usenet search engine popular with file sharers. The court prescribed the Cleanfeed content blocking system deployed in cases of concern about child pornography.

That legal request came from six Hollywood studios. BT resisted the petition, contending its subscribers simply used the ISP as a conduit for their Internet activities, not directly as a "service to infringe copyright." The court saw the matter otherwise. Users "are using BT's service to infringe copyright," the ruling countered [italics ours].

"The Studios have made it clear that this is a test case," the judge also observed in that instance. "If they are successful in obtaining an order against BT, then they intend to seek similar orders against all the other significant ISPs in the UK."

This Pirate Bay case comes not from Hollywood, however, but from Britain's top music rightsholder trade representative. BT sent us a statement this morning calling the Newsbin2 decision, "a helpful judgment" that "provides clarity on this complex issue."

"It clearly shows that rights holders need to prove their claims and convince a judge to make a court order," the commentary added. "BT has consistently said that rights holders need to take this route."

BPI's CEO has also issued a statement on its Pirate Bay action. "We would not tolerate Counterfeits 'R' Us on the High Street—if we want economic growth, we cannot accept illegal rip-off sites on the internet either," BPI CEO Geoff Taylor declared today. "We hope that BT will do the right thing and block The Pirate Bay."