ECPA ENFORCES COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT ORDER

On behalf of a coalition of its member publishers, the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) has asked the High Court in London, England to hold Andrew Amue, the founder of the www.evanglibrary.info and www.evanglibrary.com websites, in contempt of court for his repeated refusal to comply with a 2008 Court Order which requires Mr. Amue to cease display of over 130 works on his sites without permission.

ECPA first became aware more than six years ago of Mr. Amue’s site at www.biblecentre.net, which featured a collection of the full texts of hundreds of copyrighted Christian theological works displayed without permission. Mr Amue first offered free access to the texts, then started charging a subscription fee. ECPA organized a coalition of its member publishers, comprised of Thomas Nelson, Zondervan, Baker Publishing Group, Tyndale, Moody, Logos Software, and IVP UK, to address the infringement.

ECPA repeatedly asked Mr. Amue to cease infringing copyright, but Mr Amue refused to either secure the necessary licenses or to remove the works from his websites.

In March 2008, the ECPA coalition secured an Order from the High Court in London requiring Mr. Amue to cease the infringement. The publishers were unable to serve the Order on Mr. Amue for over a year as he moved residences and changed his name, apparently in an attempt to avoid being served.

After ECPA secured forensic evidence that Mr. Amue continues to operate the infringing sites, ECPA and the publisher coalition determined that they had no choice but to ask the Court to enforce the Order.