The High Court in London has issued a bench warrant for the owner of a U.K.-based Web site for failing to appear at a hearing to enforce a court order requiring him to stop posting copyrighted materials of Christian books without permission.

On behalf of a coalition of member publishers, the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) had asked the court to hold Andrew Amue in contempt of court for his repeated refusal to comply with the March 2008 court order.

ECPA first became aware more than six years ago of the Web site, www.biblecentre.net, operated by Amue, which provided the full text of hundreds of Christian books for download without acquiring the necessary licenses from the publishers.

Amue first offered product downloads for free, but then started charging a membership fee. ECPA and the publishers repeatedly demanded Amue respect the copyright of the works, but he refused to secure the necessary licenses or to remove the content from his Web site, ECPA officials said.

ECPA and the publishing coalition--which comprised Thomas Nelson Publishers, Zondervan, Baker Publishing Group, Tyndale House Publishers, Moody Publishers, Logos Software and Inter-Varsity Press U.K.--then filed a copyright infringement lawsuit in October 2007.

In March 2008, the ECPA coalition secured an order from the High Court in London requiring Amue to cease the infringement. For more than a year, he reportedly moved residences and changed his name, apparently in an attempt to avoid being served the court order.

After he was served the court order last June, Amue promised to stop posting the copyrighted materials, but he has continued to operate the Web sites—which include www.evanglibrary.org.uk, said ECPA officials, noting that Amue is reportedly operating under a fictitious name.

"After numerous and extraordinary efforts to stop Amue from illegally using and selling copyrighted materials from many authors and several publishers, we had no choice but to collectively ask the court to back its previous order," said Zondervan Executive Vice President and Editor in Chief Stan Gundry. "Amue asserts that he believes the copyright laws are, in his words, ‘un-Christian.'

"In reality, he is stealing the works of others," Gundry continued. "Originally, he gave this copyrighted content away. For most of the past six years, he charged customers for the stolen material. The facts speak for themselves."

ECPA President and CEO Mark Kuyper added: "Given the increased movement toward the digital distribution of intellectual property, it is more important than ever to affirm the boundaries of the law. As good stewards of their authors' copyrights, these publishers are fulfilling their responsibility to address blatant and continued infringement."

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