Jack Schofield
TV Links shut down for linking
And if linking is illegal, how many of us are guilty?
October 20, 2007 1:42 PM
The TV Links disclaimer
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 - 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.
Update: Amusing in context, see this earlier Guardian article TV quick!, about sites that provide links to TV programmes.
ABOUT:
TV-Links replacements
I thought that for the first entry in my blog I would post something that is usefull to other people rather than a boring intro about myself (maybe I'll do that later hah!).As we all know the nazi's have grabbed the TV-Links owner on Thursday and have/are probably threatening him with all sorts of nasty things if he doesn't admit he's a terrorist. Really, shouldn't the police be out stopping murderers and armed robbers rather than raiding some kid's home for a website?
Anyway, I've decided to give a list of what i consider to be the best TV link sites around, that is, sites where you can go find your favorite episode of Lost, Buffy or 24. I simply don't have the time to trawl through YouTube, DailyMotion or Guba for shows or movies so it's a godsend that the sites below exist. The list below is just my personal favorites, I'm sure you have your own and if so let me know, the more sites the better! Anyway without further ado......
SurfTheChannel
These guys are without a doubt my favorite and that's saying something when I only found it a week ago. It's basically a clone of tv-links but with a few nice additions. I love the way I can subscribe to any channel or show via RSS which makes it easier to keep track of my fav shows. At time of writing they have *14,712* tv episodes. The site is in beta right now but personally I haven't come across 1 bug yet. The only drawback of this site is that the community is non-existent but I suppose that will change as the site becomes better known.
Alluc
Alluc used to be so sloooowwwwwww but they seem to have upgraded their server and now theyre nippy as hell. They have a nice crowd there and you rarely get dead links as they're on top.
**The rest below I won't comment on because if I'm honest STC and Alluc gives me what I need so I don't go need much else. If anyone would like to comment about the ones below though I would be happy to edit to show people's thoughts.
http://tvunderground.org.ru/
http://www.freetvsearch.com
http://www.craftytv.com
http://www.tvlinkvault.com
http://www.freetvsearch.com/
http://www.surfthechannel.com/
http://www.ssupload.com/
http://www.videolemon.com
http://movies.nabolister.com
http://flickpeek.com
http://www.findtvlinks.com/
http://www.shoutwire.com/viewstory/90965/Watch_Any
http://www.joost.com/
http://www.ovguide.com/
http://www.watchtvsitcoms.com/simpsons.php
http://www15.alluc.org/alluc/
http://www.live-online-tv.com/
http://www.findago.com/series/
http://online-television.tv/
http://www.craftytv.com/
http://beeline.tv/
http://www.movies-on-demand.tv/
http://www.peekvid.com/
http://aknof.blogspot.com/2007/01/free-goodies-for
http://quicksilverscreen.com/
http://Alloftv.net
http://joox.net
http://quicksilverscreen.com/ipb/
http://www.videolemon.com
http://movies.nabolister.com
http://flickpeek.com
http://showstash.com
http://teevee4me.com
http://wheeya.com
http://emuduel.com
http://www.findago.com/series/
Hope this helps some people, happy viewing!
