The owner of a U.K.-based Web site has agreed to stop posting copyrighted materials of Christian books without permission—resolving a nearly seven-year legal battle by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA).

The agreement follows the ECPA's request, on behalf of a coalition of member publishers, that the High Court of Justice in London hold Andrew Amue in contempt of court for his repeated refusal to comply with a March 2008 court order.

ECPA President and CEO Mark Kuyper commended the coalition "for their steadfast participation and contribution to this effort." "It has been frustrating at times, but ultimately fruitful," he said. "As difficult as this has been, it was made infinitely more tolerable by the expertise and wisdom of our legal experts Brian Flagler and Martyn Bailey."

ECPA first became aware in 2003 of the Web site operated by Amue—www.biblecentre.net—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 copyrights, 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, 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 the following year, 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 to Andrew Ansell, apparently in an attempt to avoid being served the court order.

However, following the High Court's consent order, Amue admitted to infringing a large quantity of Christian books by displaying them on his Web sites. In addition, he has submitted a written apology for his actions, and the copyrighted materials have been deleted from his Web sites.

Flagler, an Oregon-based attorney, said that the case "serves as a precedent and strong statement that ECPA publishers will not allow infringement of their works anywhere in the world."

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