TV Links
| File:Tv-links.jpg | |
Type of site | Video link index |
|---|---|
| Owner | David Rock |
| Created by | David Rock |
| Revenue | Donations and Image Ads |
| URL | http://www.tv-links.co.uk |
| Commercial | No |
TV Links was a website that contained links to television programming and movies from around the world and movies submitted by users. No actual content was hosted on TV Links, all content was hosted on external websites and the servers were physically located in the Netherlands.[1] It had been described as "teetering on the edge of illegality",[2] and on 18 October 2007, the site's owner, David Rock,[3] was arrested, although was released without being charged with a crime (see references).
Historical context and significance
Beginning with the original Napster program that allowed internet users to search for and download MP3 files, with the majority being copyrighted works, the internet has a long history of facilitating the illegal distribution of copyrighted materials. After Napster was shut down, other networks and protocols sprang up, one of the most successful being the BitTorrent protocol. With the advent of video streaming sites like YouTube and Google Video, users can now upload TV shows and movies. As copyrighted materials violate the terms of their hosting services, they are routinely deleted and so there was a desire to create a regularly updated index facilitating the location of available content. TV Links was one of the most popular of this breed of indices. It was the 26th most popular internet site in the UK (beating Sky.com) and 43rd in the US (beating Netflix.com) before its shutdown, and 0.4% of global internet users were accessing the site.
Legality
General
The legality of this site could be compared to BitTorrent indexing sites like The Pirate Bay or the original Napster program, in that the site did not actually host the files, but only provided links to the files which are hosted on external sites.
The legal page of the site contained the following 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 websites. 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.[4]
Shutdown by UK government
On 18 October 2007, the owner of TV-Links was arrested by the Gloucestershire Police in cooperation with the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT). The site was also shut down.[5][6][7].
Arrest, release, and lack of charges
Whilst arrested under Section 92 of the Trade Marks Act 1994, he has now been released 'pending further investigation' with no charges filed against him as of 25th October.[8][9] In fact, Section 92 of the Trade Marks Act 1994 deals primarily with falsely applying signs to goods that may be mistaken for a registered trademark, something which the TV links website did not do.
Broader implications
The forced closure of this site (and others like it) raises a difficult legal question as outlined in the following quote from an article in the Guardian Unlimited, TV Links shut down for linking:[10]
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.
Claims by FACT
FACT made a claim that the 26 year old man from Cheltenham was arrested in connection with offences relating to the facilitation of copyright infringement on the Internet whereas the arrest was over a matter of possible trademark infringement. [11][8]
References
- ^ R (31 October 2007). "TV-Links.co.uk Raided, Owner Arrested: UPDATED". thenewfreedom.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Eva Wiseman logs on to the sites staging a TV revolution | Technology | The Guardian
- ^ http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=231771&command=displayContent&sourceNode=231754&home=yes&more_nodeId1=231776&contentPK=18788807
- ^ "TV Links". The Internet Archive Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2008-01-15.
- ^ "TV LINKS WEBSITE OWNER ARRESTED FOR COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT ", FACT, October 18 2007.
- ^ tv-links.co.uk forced offline and owner arrested at www.p2pvine.com (accessed October 2007, 2007)
- ^ TV Links Down at www.mahalo.com (accessed October 2007, 2007)
- ^ a b Andres Guadamuz (23 October 2007). "No charges filed, man released pending further investigation". TechnoLlama.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) Cite error: The named reference "TechnoLlamaArticle" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page). - ^ Kevin Anderson (25 October 2007). "Why was someone arrested over the TV Links website?". The Guardian.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "TV Links shut down for linking", Guardian Unlimited, October 20 2007.
- ^ "TV LINKS WEBSITE OWNER ARRESTED FOR COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT ", FACT, October 18 2007.