http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,21...rticle_continue
QUOTE
Katie Allen
Friday October 19, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
One of the world's most-used pirate film websites has been closed after providing links to illegal versions of major Hollywood hits and TV shows.
The first closure of a major UK-based pirate site was also accompanied by raids and an arrest, the anti-piracy group Federation Against Copyright Theft (Fact) said today.
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.
Visitors to the site could get access to major feature films, sometimes within days of their initial cinema release. Recent links took users to illegal versions of the Disney/Pixar animation sensation Ratatouille as well as to most of this summer's blockbusters.
"Sites such as TV Links contribute to and profit from copyright infringement by identifying, posting, organising, 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 Fact.
The group's director general Kieron Sharp said TV Links was the first major target in a campaign to crackdown on web piracy.
"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," he said.
Roger Marles, from Trading Standards said sites such as TV Links allowed people to break UK copyright law.
"The 'users' are potentially evading licence fees, subscription fees to digital services or the cost of purchase or admittance to cinemas to view the films," he added.
The British Video Association estimates that at least £459m was lost to the video, film and TV industries due to piracy in 2006.
Friday October 19, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
One of the world's most-used pirate film websites has been closed after providing links to illegal versions of major Hollywood hits and TV shows.
The first closure of a major UK-based pirate site was also accompanied by raids and an arrest, the anti-piracy group Federation Against Copyright Theft (Fact) said today.
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.
Visitors to the site could get access to major feature films, sometimes within days of their initial cinema release. Recent links took users to illegal versions of the Disney/Pixar animation sensation Ratatouille as well as to most of this summer's blockbusters.
"Sites such as TV Links contribute to and profit from copyright infringement by identifying, posting, organising, 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 Fact.
The group's director general Kieron Sharp said TV Links was the first major target in a campaign to crackdown on web piracy.
"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," he said.
Roger Marles, from Trading Standards said sites such as TV Links allowed people to break UK copyright law.
"The 'users' are potentially evading licence fees, subscription fees to digital services or the cost of purchase or admittance to cinemas to view the films," he added.
The British Video Association estimates that at least £459m was lost to the video, film and TV industries due to piracy in 2006.
I won't bother debating the obvious reasons why the site shouldnt have been targeted, so in a grand gesture of goodwill to all those out there looking for "Tv-Links 2", then here it, or rather, they, are:
QUOTE
- http://www.ovguide.com/tvfilm.html- LOADS of links to other link sites.
- http://www3.alluc.org/alluc/ - TV links like site
- http://www.dailyvideo.ca/divxtube/ - Movies, documentaries, in DIVX Stage6-like format
- http://allsp.com/
- http://www.downloadhelper.net/sites.php (WARNING: , some links may be adult in content and thus NSFW. I havent checked them all as there are loads including many sites that are family freindly.)
- http://www.peekvid.com/
- http://www.veoh.com/ (WARNING: This site requires in-house software which has been reported online to contain SPYWARE or MALWARE. The downloads themselves are of very low quality and thus should NOT be used. I include the link anyway for your decision to use it or not)
- http://www.fanpop.com/
- http://www.ifilm.com/
- http://www.dailymotion.com/us
- http://stage6.divx.com/
- http://blip.tv/
- http://www.watchtvsitcoms.com/simpsons.php (click the top toolbar for other shows too)
- http://www.watchtvsitcoms.com/simpsons.php (You have to pay for this one, but its not bad. Better than regular cable anyway)
- http://www.crunchyroll.com/ (anime and otaku site: requires donations and membership to view)
Download Youtube and almost any other kind of flash based video:
- http://www.downloadhelper.net/
- http://www3.alluc.org/alluc/ - TV links like site
- http://www.dailyvideo.ca/divxtube/ - Movies, documentaries, in DIVX Stage6-like format
- http://allsp.com/
- http://www.downloadhelper.net/sites.php (WARNING: , some links may be adult in content and thus NSFW. I havent checked them all as there are loads including many sites that are family freindly.)
- http://www.peekvid.com/
- http://www.veoh.com/ (WARNING: This site requires in-house software which has been reported online to contain SPYWARE or MALWARE. The downloads themselves are of very low quality and thus should NOT be used. I include the link anyway for your decision to use it or not)
- http://www.fanpop.com/
- http://www.ifilm.com/
- http://www.dailymotion.com/us
- http://stage6.divx.com/
- http://blip.tv/
- http://www.watchtvsitcoms.com/simpsons.php (click the top toolbar for other shows too)
- http://www.watchtvsitcoms.com/simpsons.php (You have to pay for this one, but its not bad. Better than regular cable anyway)
- http://www.crunchyroll.com/ (anime and otaku site: requires donations and membership to view)
Download Youtube and almost any other kind of flash based video:
- http://www.downloadhelper.net/
The thing is, closing the site down will only make 6 more open up in Sweden or somewhere else where laws are more lax. The main thing here is to make all of these links sites open source, so anyone can create one.
The OTHER thing to do would be to allow people to watch TV shows whenever they like for free. Its not as if they are paying to watch them on TV anyway. The future's web 2.0: The future's online.
It's NOT via "watch when we say so" TV. Its NOT for crappy "Im sorry we cant help you fix your cable. If there is a problem, then please pay us to send someone round to have a look or go online to fix it yourself" cable TV either.
Oh well...
So far, this site seems the most TV links like:
http://movies.nabolister.com/
You can even do a search.
Shame Veoh is so Blot these days. I wonder why the police even bothered. Its not as if Veoh is actually usable anymore, plus Stage6 is a bit tempermental and tudou is basically closed to anyone outside China (we get shunted to the end of any queue of users wanting to stream any vid you see).
I can see the judge's verdict now on that poor sod:
QUOTE
"For the crime of linking to 5 minute veoh clips, out of date and unusable Stage6 links, incredibly slow chinese hosting sites...I sentence you to 12 years. This should give you enough time to download an actual movie from Tudou.com AND have a healthy desire to watch streaming free movies on the internet to catch up on all the ones you missed out on in prison!"