Linking to shows/motion pictures

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Spacey
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Linking to shows/motion pictures

It is not permitted here.

Sites have gotten shut down for it (see spoilers). While SGW forum is hardly a contender with movie/show sites, activity that is considered illegal should not happen or be discussed here (discussion of how to conduct an illegal act).

[spoiler]It's a sad day for streaming video fans everywhere as news has been reported that TVLinks has been shut down and the owner, a 26yo man from Chelteham in the UK, was arrested.

Though not hosting an actual content himself, and rather merely providing links to where particular titles can be found, he was nonetheless apparently charged for the "facilitation" of copyright infringement.

"Sites such as TV Links contribute to and profit from copyright infringement by identifying, posting, organizing, and indexing links to infringing content found on the internet that users can then view on demand by visiting these illegal sites," said a spokesman for Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) today.

What makes the charges so odd is that he was again, only providing LINKS to pirated content, and never actually hosted anything. Can linking really be considered "facilitation?" If I link to TVLinks am I then a co-conspirator?

Here's the TVLinks disclaimer:


TV Links is not responsible for any content linked to or referred to from these pages.

TV Links does not host any content on our Servers

All video links point to content hosted on third party webites. Users who upload to these websites agree not to upload illegal content when creating their user accounts. TV Links does not accept responsibility for content hosted on third party websites.

The notion of making linking a crime is ridiculous and completely out of line. How would anybody be able to discuss controversial sites or content if they first had to ensure the legality of the destination? Would we have to make it so that links were simply spelled out and not HTML capable(www.tvlinks.co.uk vs TVLinks)? Maybe this is the answer because I think then it could fall under the category of speech. Furthermore, it really shows that Google is getting away with bloody murder via sites like YouTube and Google Video.

FACT goes on to revisit the same old diatribe about how piracy is stealing food from form the tables of people who work in the film industry, but with guys like Brad Pitt reportedly getting $20million bucks to make trash like "Babel" who's really robbing who? Couldn't Pitt be paid a little less, say $15 million, and leave that other 5 for the "starving" film crew? I guess not

"The theft and distribution of films harms the livelihoods of those working in the UK film industry and in ancillary industries, as well as damaging the economy," said FACT's director general Kieron Sharp.

What's even more surprising is that the move was part of an overall strategy to crack down on piracy, though all it does is target a middleman who tells you where to go. More importantly, will its demise really compel people to find content legally or to suddenly run down to their local cinema? I think not, and all it means, as is usually the case with piracy, is that people will just go elsewhere.

Either way R.I.P. TVLinks, it was nice while it lasted. Maybe once again we have a case where Sweden's the only answer.[/spoiler]
http://www.zeropaid.com/news/9066/TVLin ... r+Arrested!

[spoiler]According to a report in The Guardian: "A 26-year-old man from Cheltenham was arrested on Thursday in connection with offences relating to the facilitation of copyright infringement on the internet, Fact said."

The arrest and the closure of the site - http://www.tv-links.co.uk - came during an operation by officers from Gloucestershire County Council trading standards in conjunction with investigators from Fact and Gloucestershire Police.

Fact claims that tv-links.co.uk was providing links to illegal film content that had been camcorder recorded from cinemas and then uploaded to the internet. The site also provided links to TV shows that were being illegally distributed.

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.[/spoiler]
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/ ... king_.html

This thread is open for those who wish to discuss this.
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thaltek
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Re: Linking to shows/motion pictures

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Spacey
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Re: Linking to shows/motion pictures

What I mean by show is television show or motion picture...you know the stuff Interpol and the MPAA is after.

For example: Friends (television show), and Mission Impossible (motion picture).

Youtube police themselves: they remove their own content that violates property rights. At the same time, if someone just uploaded SG: SG-1 - The Ark of Truth to youtube, it doesn't make it ok to link to it here.

I'm basically speaking about linking to things that can get people arrested and/or a criminal record.
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thaltek
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Re: Linking to shows/motion pictures

:shock: spacey you seem to have lost your scent of adventure......-_-
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Spacey
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Re: Linking to shows/motion pictures

huh?

*licks thal*
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Jack
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Re: Linking to shows/motion pictures

:shock:
Ya'll acting like you know what monster is
Me have 25 years in the monster biz
All monsters think you can fuss with this
Well you can talk to me Snuffleupagus
Me sneak into your house, me leave before dawn
Your daughters will be pregnant and your cookies will be gone
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Spacey
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Re: Linking to shows/motion pictures

*licks Jack*
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Jack
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Re: Linking to shows/motion pictures

Spacey wrote:*licks Jack*

*kidnaps Spacey*

YOU IS NEVAR LEAVING ME AGAIN!
Ya'll acting like you know what monster is
Me have 25 years in the monster biz
All monsters think you can fuss with this
Well you can talk to me Snuffleupagus
Me sneak into your house, me leave before dawn
Your daughters will be pregnant and your cookies will be gone
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Malx wrote:Make kids not cancer!
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Re: Linking to shows/motion pictures

that sucks i really wanted to watch some Atlantis now :(
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