www.tv-links.co.uk - Shut down by FACT

[onelegout]

Hi people,
Well I'm not very active here anymore, but this is something which I felt needed to be discussed here as I'm sure many of you will be familiar with www.tv-links.co.uk and will be shocked to hear that the owner has been arrested, and the site shut down.

www.tv-links.co.uk was a site which provided links to google video and stage6.divx.com where users could view publicly hosted movies and tv shows hosted by google and divx.

These videos were breaching copyright, and therefore google and divx should have been the guilty in this case right? Well according to the police and FACT, it was in fact tv-links' fault that people watched pirated content freely avaliable on major websites. I have no doubt that tv-links provided a means of more easily finding these videos, but any search on google videos or divx would have shown the same results, are google videos and stage6 shut down? What do you think?!

This is idiotic policing, it is NOT the way to counter piracy. Without removing the source they are doing NOTHING to deter people from viewing the videos.

It is like arresting a man for pointing at a drug dealer and saying 'he's a drug dealer', and then not arresting the dealer himself!

Not only that, but The Guardian newspaper here in the uk have provided a typically biased article on the story, which shows only the police and FACT's views on the matter.

So, what's my point? All newspaper articles are somewhat biased!...
Well what if I were to tell you that in february of this year, the same newspaper published an article praising tv-links, promoting it, urging people to view it. They even provided links at the bottom of the article to tv-links.co.uk and other articles. The list was entitled 'Free View'

It saddens me to see that such newspapers are so easily moulded to take the view of whoever they are trying to please.

[/rant]

LINKS

Guardian article on closure of tv-links.co.uk: http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2195407,00.html

Guardian article from february promiting tv-links.co.uk:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/feb/24/internet.newmedia


DISCUSS!!!!!


H

[Spawn-Inc]

dam, that sucks, i never watched anything there but heard about it through my dad. the same thing (well similar) happened to lik-sang (http://www.lik-sang.com/), stupid sony got them shutdown. i never bought from them but they had the neatest things there.

[Computer-Geek]

Damn thats why i cant watch my anime or anything on there :( That is so messed up. Hopefully this site (http://www.movieforumz.com) doesn't get taken down since it has been having some downtime.

[Crazy Buddhist]

DAMN

I thought it was just the wifi I'm behind not letting me use it. I have been watching the entire sequence of Mash and was about 3/4 of the way through. I loved TV-links.

I believe its not google videos etc but a bit torrent system that was the technology behind it though as the quality of playback used to get better during the first five minutes of watching as it found more torrent sources.

Thats bad news. NO TV station is running Mash and the A team and Andromeda old series. etc etc etc .. it was a fab site.

:(

[Omega]

I know that major torrenting and p2p networks have been being brought down recently, so I guess it's time for some people to watch their tails.

I've used tv-links.co.uk a few times before, but not much.

[crenn]

Foxtel is always Running Mash down here.... think you can transfer to Australia? xD

[onelegout]

I believe its not google videos etc but a bit torrent system that was the technology behind it though as the quality of playback used to get better during the first five minutes of watching as it found more torrent sources.
:(
Stage6 was their main source, and google video their second most used source, trust me I practically lived there for months! :D
H

[Bopher]

You can't even get a search on some bittorrent site here in the US. I was looking for some Linux stuff and it pointed me to torrentspy, as soon as I tried searching it told me being located in the US i couldn't search on the site. And lik-sang is gone. Same here with the looked and never bought but was keeping some stuff in mind.

[crenn]

I'll just mention this. The technology behind BitTorrent isn't illegal, however what it's mainly being used for, is.

[Greco101]

Maybe if more FULL trial versions were available and software/games were not so overpriced, piracy would be reduced.

I learned my lesson buying things based on trailers/limited trials/demos.

[crenn]

Some people 'pirate' stuff to try before they buy...... most are just cheap asses.

[Crazy Buddhist]

Good news is some of the other sites linked in the original Guardian article still work. I'm watching Southpark as I write :) thx for the link.

[Scotty]

Its because of piracy software and game prices go up, but that doesn't stop people, generally if a trail is available then so is a pirated version, or you can do what one guy did and e-mailed the company who cracked his product, ask them nicely and they stopped the downloads... Can't see other companies doing that though.

But Trials are always 30 days or less and 50%of the time 90% of the features aren't there, how the hell do you decided if you want it then?

But back on topic, tv-links was a good place watched some stuff there, but i have other ways.

[calumc]

Just while we're on the subject OiNK, the world's biggest music BT tracker is no more http://torrentfreak.com/oinkcd-servers-raided-admin-arrested/

Jeremy Banks, Head of the IFPI’s Internet Anti-Piracy Unit, said in a reponse to the news: “OiNK was central to the illegal distribution of pre-release music online. This was not a case of friends sharing music for pleasure. This was a worldwide network that got hold of music they did not own the rights to and posted it online.”
Bull****. OiNK was the last place anyone with two brain cells would go for a scene release!!

[TheGreatSatan]

I kept putting off going there to see the Heroes episodes for too long!

[Eclecticos]

a Private tracker is the way to go. .IMO.

[calumc]

a Private tracker is the way to go. .IMO.

have you seen the news about OiNK?!?!?!?!
things are clamping down more and more.
I think BT clients like Tribler, which operate kinda like a private tracker but operate via DHT, are the file sharing future

[xRyokenx]

I used to watch South Park there all the time... thankfully I found somewhere else I will not mention at this time. What's the deal though? Nobody wants to have to buy the seasons on DVD (which is outrageously priced to begin with $60 per set? Screw that mess...) and you can watch it on TV... I know the service isn't free, but it's still pathetic that they make it so you have to do loads of research and wait now to see reruns of shows. What morons.

Some of what was said is like "Air has been an aid in distributing fumes from various drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes for far too long and has recently been arrested." What're we gonna breathe now, hmm?!?!

EDIT: This reminds me of how people tend to yell at me after a while of me doing something I didn't know was wrong instead of letting me know not to do it. Ah well... it's their fault but my responsibility to correct these problems... meh.

[Eclecticos]

Probably shouldn't discuss this any further its against the rules.
If your into torrents there are legitimate sites.

[xRyokenx]

I've only really used torrents for downloading certain Linux distros and game demos when I can't get them elsewhere. I hate pirating anything, it's annoying...

[D1337]

DAMN

I thought it was just the wifi I'm behind not letting me use it. I have been watching the entire sequence of Mash and was about 3/4 of the way through. I loved TV-links.

I believe its not google videos etc but a bit torrent system that was the technology behind it though as the quality of playback used to get better during the first five minutes of watching as it found more torrent sources.

Thats bad news. NO TV station is running Mash and the A team and Andromeda old series. etc etc etc .. it was a fab site.

:(

Actually Mash is on "TV Land" every night at around 11? The channel isnt shown out of the US i dont think =/

[Crazy Buddhist]

I'll just mention this. The technology behind BitTorrent isn't illegal, however what it's mainly being used for, is.

I'll just mention this. the law is an ass.

:)

[calumc]

QuwwMZKYxag

“paying subscriptions to enter the website.”
Such bull****, I was a member and never paid a penny!

“illegally downloading music onto his website”
WTF?!?!? that doesnt even make sense!!!

[xRyokenx]

I don't know what they're trying to say with that... just... what the hell? What site were they even talking about? Is the point they're trying to make just proving how stupid they are?

[calumc]

Sorry should have said it was OiNK. This whole thing is just sending shockwaves through the whole BT community even though I don't think a single OiNK user is worried about the message thats currently occupying www.oink.cd

[xRyokenx]

It still should've been the newscaster that tells you the sight... ah well...

[OvRiDe]

I kept putting off going there to see the Heroes episodes for too long!

They have the full episodes of Season 2 on NBC.com (http://www.nbc.com/Heroes/video/episodes.shtml). Its not commercial free, but the quality is pretty good.