Linking To Be Made Illegal?

I'll try this topic again in here, it's in relation to TV Links being shutdown by FACT for linking to sites that host pirate TV shows, movies and music. I'll give you a few articles in relation to this first as I think it's a significant moment in internet history in the UK and Ireland

Jack Schofield's comment from the Guardian Unlimited

Interesting P2P.net article in relation to it.

Personally I find it ridiculous that a website was shutdown and it's owner arrested for basically acting as a search engine for the entertainment industry. He wasn't hosting any of these movies, tv shows or music himself, just directing people where to go to find them. As Jack Schofield pointed out, if TV Links is to be prosecuted for this then surely Google, Yahoo, YouTube etc. should be as well, hell if we're going to do this then lets start shutting down message boards that have pointed someone in the direction of Heroes online for instance, and as a link on the Guardian page shows, they should be brought before the courts as well, because they had an article in their technology section pretty much rating sites like TV Links and Dailymotion. P2P make an interesting point that illegal downloading has been turned into something akin to a serious state crime by these companies, as they seem to be using the police force to carry out their bidding, and have tried to create a mindset of fear in their consumers when it relates to downloading any of their products.

I'm not really that into downloading to be honest, as I said in the original thread on this I found TV Links to be very frustrating with the quality of their links, and anytime I've gone to try to download an episode of Heroes or Lost or whatever I just find the official TV station sites that won't let you download outside the US. That said I find it disturbing that what is basically a misdeamenour is being turned into a serious piracy crime by these companies

Very interesting debate all down that Jack Schofield page. It's a bit like inciting hatred or something, you don't really do a whole lot but if you're an important bit of pressure, or link in the chain if you will, in inducing the action then you're guilty of an offence.

I'm coming around to the opinion that FACT were right to do, after all it is there job anyway, what they did. For me the key point in prosecution of TV-Links seems to be that they intentionally provided access to copyrighted material. On the other hand, Google et al do not willingly provide such access. They would be unworkable they had to vet all videos etc for copyright compliance, so instead it is more efficacious that as soon as the copyright holder informs them of the breach that they then become obliged to remove the offending article.

More than anything I think what this illustrates is the near impossibility of regulating the internet. Copyright theft, as FACT would tell us, is legally and morally wrong but does that mean that tomorrow we won't have the new TV-Links?

Funnily enough I'm studying e-commerce law at the moment and have a lecture in it tomorrow so I'll put this topic to my lecturer if I get the chance and see if he can offer any valuable insight. If not, I'll try looking into it myself and give it some more thought.

This isn't a new thing, when DeCSS (the first software for cracking DVDs) was released, the MPAA forced sites that linked to DeCSS to be shut down, or remove the link. The was enforced on the basis that linking to the program was the same as hosting it on the site.

Its a strange one as hard to know what actual law they breaking. Obviously hosting content or providing content for download is illegal but this does not seem to be what tv-links was doing. Then again who hasn't watched content online or download "free" content...

The easy solution for similar sites would be host website in a different country.

I presume the authorities are treating similar to software piracy or counterfeit goods? I expect there was a lot of lobbying at local & national level...

I think the music, tv & movie companies have been far too slow to provide legal online sources which i think encourages or provides a demand for such sites. Aside from ITunes I don't think any other legal Irish download music sites?

sony have one i think but thats not based in ireland.

ehhhh..

Another site shut down - Oink's Pink Palace, which distributed albums before their release: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oink%27s_Pink_Palace

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Originally Posted by tetsujin1979

Another site shut down - Oink's Pink Palace, which distributed albums before their release: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oink%27s_Pink_Palace

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Weren't Oinks an out and out piracy site though? Could be wrong but that was the impression I got from reports today

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Originally Posted by jebus

Weren't Oinks an out and out piracy site though? Could be wrong but that was the impression I got from reports today

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Yep, it was a torrent host site (if you know what I mean)

Didn't Coke have a legal Irish download site pete? Dunno if still there

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Originally Posted by Dodge

Yep, it was a torrent host site (if you know what I mean)

Didn't Coke have a legal Irish download site pete? Dunno if still there

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Torrents!? Those *******ing things, what exactly is a torrent? I tried downloading a torrent episode of Prison Break and it was actualling going to take 25 hours if I hadn't stopped it, properly 25 hours, it wasn't going to suddenly jump down to 20 minutes or anything like some downloads do

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Originally Posted by jebus

it was actualling going to take 25 hours if I hadn't stopped it, properly 25 hours, it wasn't going to suddenly jump down to 20 minutes or anything like some downloads do

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How do you know? The whole basis for torrents is the more people uploading the sile, the quicker the download

I use torrents a lot. In fact I download Prison Break for the missus. Usually takes about 20-30 minutes (for a 350MB file)

I left the download go for an hour and it was going in real time, granted I could have made a balls of it myself in hindsight

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Originally Posted by jebus

Torrents!? Those *******ing things, what exactly is a torrent? I tried downloading a torrent episode of Prison Break and it was actualling going to take 25 hours if I hadn't stopped it, properly 25 hours, it wasn't going to suddenly jump down to 20 minutes or anything like some downloads do

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From what i understand is you down load a little bit from lots of users rather than the full file from just one user and therefore no one person is uploading the file ( this could be completly wrong ) .

Normally when you open one it will give a time of 2 days etc but after a few mins once it gets going and finds more users with the same file to get bits from it will drop . Id say average episode of south park takes about 20-40 mins, But you might have firewall problems ports not open properly a whole host of stuff i know nothing about that would slow it down but i say you are just trying to down load one with a small amount of seeders and tons of leachers ( uploaders and downloaders )


South park have copped on to this and release the new episodes of the show the day after it airs to download legally for i think 2 dollars

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Originally Posted by anto1208

South park have copped on to this and release the new episodes of the show the day after it airs to download legally for i think 2 dollars

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Not surprised, Stone and Parker generally get how to play the media more than most involved in television and movies

They've no choice really. Its Comedy Central policy (for all their shows)

Most US networks allow US viewers (IP based) watch their shows on their websites for up to a week

I read rumour about HBO polluting Torrents of their shows by basically adding dummy files so get more incomplete downloads which means takes longer to download Typically I would get 40-55% completion rate. Good for new shows that won't make this side of the world until next year. Works best for recent shows as easier to find...