Have you ever put a link in your Facebook profile to a video you didn’t produce? Have you ever e-mailed a file you downloaded from a streaming video Web site? If you have, there’s a good chance you could be arrested.
TV Links (tv-links.co.uk) was one of the Internet’s most popular Web sites to watch movies or episodes of your favorite television shows, both old and new, for free. This week, TV Links was shut down and the owner, a 26-year-old man from Chelteham, England, was arrested.
The raid on TV Links was conducted by Gloucestershire police in cooperation with an anti-piracy group called FACT (Federation Against Copyright Theft).
You might be thinking, “So what? Another guy got arrested for piracy. Big deal.” Well, we’re not entirely sure that what TV Links was doing can be considered piracy.
TV Links didn’t host any of the movies or television programs. All it did was link to videos on YouTube, Google Video, Stage6, and a whole bunch of Asian and Eastern European servers – none of which were owned or controlled by TV Links.
From its inception, TV Links always had this disclaimer on the site: “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 Web sites.”
By arresting the owner of TV Links, linking has been made into a punishable crime. The Web site’s owner was charged with “facilitation” of copyright infringement. Just linking to a file is “facilitation?” Really? If that’s the case, we’re all co-conspirators in the wide world of piracy.
If the government really wanted to crack down on piracy, they would go after the sites that host the illegal videos. Instead, they are making an example of a man not much older than any of us who merely posted some links.
The really disappointing part is that his arrest won’t make a difference in the fight against piracy. When one site shuts down, another rises in its place. Just look at the evolution of music sharing. Napster saw its day of reckoning, yet Mr. iTunes isn’t blowing his nose with hundred dollar bills- yet.
Have we really seen the end of TV Links-type Web sites, or are there more digital bulletin boards directing us to the darkside?
