TV Links

Infobox Website
name = TV Links
favicon =
logo =


slogan = Better Than a Remote Control
url = http://tv-links.co.uk/
mirror =
commercial = No
type = Video directory
owner = David Rock
author = David Rock
dates = 2006-2007
current status = Offline, message given "Something here soon"
revenue = Donations and Image Ads

TV Links was a website containing a directory of links to television programming and movies from around the world and user-created movies created by David Rock of Cheltenham, who started the site as a hobby. In a similar style to BitTorrent trackers such as The Pirate Bay, no actual content was hosted on TV Links; all content was hosted on external websites and the servers were physically located in the Netherlands.cite web |url= http://www.thenewfreedom.net/wp/2007/10/19/tv-linkscouk-raided-owner-arrested/ |title= TV-Links.co.uk Raided, Owner Arrested: UPDATED |author= R |work=thenewfreedom |date= 31 October 2007 |quote=More emails from TV-Links mods. Apparently, the raided servers were hosted in the Netherlands ] It had been described as "teetering on the edge of illegality", and on 18 October 2007, the site's owner, David Rock,cite web |url=http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/29/no_master_criminal/ |title=TV-Links man: 'I'm no master criminal' |publisher=The Register] was arrested. He was released without being charged with a crime. As of September 2008, the original TV Links domain simply displays the text "Something here Soon".

Legality

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:

cquote2
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. [cite web
title = TV Links
publisher = The Internet Archive Wayback Machine
url = http://web.archive.org/web/20070609192218/tv-links.co.uk/legal.do
accessdate = 2008-01-15]

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. [http://www.fact-uk.org.uk/site/latest_news/index.htm "TV LINKS WEBSITE OWNER ARRESTED FOR COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT "] , "FACT", October 18 2007.] [http://blog.p2pvine.com/tv-linkscouk-forced-offline-and-owner-arrested/ tv-links.co.uk forced offline and owner arrested] at www.p2pvine.com (accessed October 2007, 2007)] [http://www.mahalo.com/TV_Links_Down TV Links Down] at www.mahalo.com (accessed October 2007, 2007)] Initial claims by FACT indicated the 26 year old man from Cheltenham was arrested in connection with offenses relating to the facilitation of copyright infringement on the Internet, whereas the arrest was over a matter of possible trademark infringement.cite web |url=http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/23/tv_links_trademark_law/ |title=TV-Links man was arrested under trademark laws |author=Lucy Sherrif |work= The Register |date= 23 October 2007 |quote= ]

Arrest, release, and lack of charges

Whilst arrested under [http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk/content.aspx?LegType=All+Legislation&searchEnacted=0&extentMatchOnly=0&confersPower=0&blanketAmendment=0&sortAlpha=0&PageNumber=0&NavFrom=0&parentActiveTextDocId=0&activetextdocid=1868194 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, 2007.cite web |url= http://technollama.blogspot.com/2007/10/tv-links-clampdown.html |title= No charges filed, man released pending further investigation |author= Andres Guadamuz |work= TechnoLlama |date= 23 October 2007 |quote= ] Section 92 has been used to prosecute illegal copiers of CDs and DVDs, but never in the absence of a physical storage medium. It is unclear whether the operation of TV Links was actually a crime under UK law.cite web |url= http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/oct/25/piracy.intellectualproperty |title= Why was someone arrested over the TV Links website? |author= Kevin Anderson |work= The Guardian |date= 25 October 2007 |quote= ] The owner himself, stated that he could not find anything in it saying that what his site did was illegal, and if he had, he would have already stopped.

Broader implications

The forced closure of this site (and the legality of 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": [ [http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/10/20/tv_links_shut_down_for_linking_.html "TV Links shut down for linking"] , "Guardian Unlimited", October 20 2007.]

cquote2
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.

Impact

Concerns over the popularity of sites such as TV Links were the influence for the launch of legal video on demand services from Britain's television networks, such as the BBC iPlayer and 4od. Even after the closure of TV Links, there still exists other similar services such as Alluc.cite web |url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/feb/24/internet.newmedia |title=Eva Wiseman logs on to the sites staging a TV revolution | Technology | The Guardian |publisher=Guardian Unlimited |accessdate=2008-08-05]

References

See also

*Alluc - a similar service