Tv-links.co.uk shut down

[Barmi]

I can't believe he's been arrested

It's a pity the Gloucestershire Police started with such small fry. There are a couple of multibillionaires called Larry Page and Sergey Brin -- the founders of Google -- who provide vast numbers of links to content that is being illegally distributed. Indeed, as everyone knows, they actually host plenty of illegal content on their own video site, YouTube, which has a UK operation.

Is the message that it's less criminal to host illegal content on YouTube than it is to to link to it from a site such as TV Links? Or is it just that FACT (Federation Against Copyright Theft) and the police won't tackle anybody with enough high-powered lawyers to fight back? Is The New Freedom blog correct in saying: "They just have so much money that they have become above the law."

Of course, there is a difference between building a site around links to content that could be presumed to lack copyright clearance and linking unintentionally from a site set up for a different purpose. However, I'm not a lawyer so I don't know how significant this is. (Is shoplifting OK if you have a proper job but criminal if you're unemployed and starving?)

It will be interesting to see who FACT picks on next. There are plenty of newspaper journalists who nowadays, as part of their proper jobs, link to YouTube videos and other internet content. It would be amazing if every single bit of material -- some of it "repurposed" -- had full and correct copyright clearance.

In future, do I risk being thrown in the slammer for linking directly to a YouTube video? What if I just say "go to Google and search for [YouTube xxx yyy]" or whatever? Oh dear, I forgot, Google's illegal so that will have to be closed down.

Perhaps I am already breaking the law by linking to Google, YouTube, TV Links, Pirate Bay and other sites that link to illegal content because this must also count as contributing to "the facilitation of copyright infringement on the internet" -- and, by the way, I expect you are breaking the law if you link to or even read this story.

Indeed, if linking is illegal, we might as well shut down the Internet, because there is no practical way anybody can guarantee the legality of what's on the end of any link. Even if you could guarantee it at the time of linking, there's no guarantee it would still be legal less than a second later, or for the rest of time.

Slippery slope says "hi"... :rolleyes:

Continuing your flawed argument... let's assume I watched the first 14 episodes of Heroes on BBC2 but because it progressed only on a weekly basis, I felt encouraged to watch the rest of the first series on TV-links. Therefore we should just get rid of TV channels altogether because they encourage viewers to infringe upon copyright laws by using the freedom they possess to search for other episodes themselves. :rolleyes:

There is one thing which I agree on with you: TV-links should be of a lesser priority than the video hosting sites where all these "link libraries" hyperlink to, e.g. Google video, Veoh, Tuduo. If less time was spent prancing around to pick off the middle-man, I'm sure more time would be available to crack down on suppliers. (No, I'm not on about drugs.. although it sounds like many get addicted to these sites anyway.)

[Grindie]

R.I.P tv-links

all great things must come to an end =[

[Scuzzy]

I was noticing that most of the links were dead. R.I.P Tv-Links

[Chickenblob]

Oh noes. Now I'll have find another place to watch things.

[PriceTags]

Got what they deserved then? Ripping? Is what I gathered from what you wrote at the bottom of your post

He meant R.I.P.

[Neversoft]

I knew it would only be a matter of time before this happened. I'm supprised it actually survived for this long.

"The 'users' are potentially evading licence fees, subscription fees to digital services or the cost of purchase or admittance to cinemas to view the films," he added"
Lol @ this guy telling us we're breaking the law.

Guess I'll have to find another way to watch anime and films then. I'll probably stick with Veoh TV for now.

Nope that wasn't it
I'm so sad I want to watch DragonballGT

It's your lucky day kiddo.

http://watchdragonball.blogspot.com/

[Sly]

Pfft i always used that site to watch smallville/scrubs/70s show/heroes/southpark