Movie streaming site shut down...

Dave!

http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2195407,00.html

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.

Dunno where the last thread went....

Anyways, anyone know what he could be charged with? Or is this just to scare other such site owners into stopping?

humbert

There was another thread on this that vanished very recently(or I'm going bonkers). I'm curious as to why though.

Dave!

humbert wrote: »

There was another thread on this that vanished very recently(or I'm going bonkers). I'm curious as to why though.

Me too... Coulda been cos the address was mentioned, so I didn't do that this time.

RuggieBear

because people are linking to other "illegal" sites.


It's bonkers that a mere hoster got shut down but if people are going to say on here that they download and then link to other similar sites then boards could potentially face a similar issue.

Tigger

humbert wrote: »

There was another thread on this that vanished very recently(or I'm going bonkers). I'm curious as to why though.

i'm gonna say that it was zapped with the illegal content skick and that

i'm not gonna post on this one anymore :eek:

daniel3982

wheres my thread gone :'-(

Booooooooooooooooooooooo

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

quickly brothers, to the conspiracy theories forum!

those damn jews are at it again

humbert

RuggieBear wrote: »

because people are linking to other "illegal" sites.


It's bonkers that a mere hoster got shut down but if people are going to say on here that they download and then link to other similar sites then boards could potentially face a similar issue.

Well that makes sense but editing a few posts and adding a warning as to what is and isn't permitted would have worked too IMO.

This is quite a significant precedent in the UK I think. Where does that leave torrent sites??

mawk

poor guy. hope he doesnt get too slapped.

maybe the 35bazillion users will donate him some money to pay for his legal fees or somesuch

An Citeog

According to what I've read in the legal disclaimer on the aformentioned site, they really thought they'd found a legal loophole. Guess it wasn't to be and the music/movie industry will continue to fight a losing battle rather than embracing and manipulating technology for its own gains. For every site that's shut down there's another one popping straight back up.

Karoma

The fact that the last thread was deleted should have been a clue in itself.
Do not link to any sites or be daft enough to state that you use them or torrents, etc. to download copyright material. (It's a grey area, but one which we'd rather not venture into.)

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

it's still ok to rag on the jews though, right?

Karoma

Mordeth wrote: »

it's still ok to rag on the jews though, right?

Always. Just don't forget the Roma.

Basq

Useless site anyways.. good riddance!

How anyone could watch low quality streaming content in a 320 x 240 window for 45 minutes is beyond me?

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

because we're not all nazi's for quality?

Dave!

basquille wrote: »

Useless site anyways.. good riddance!

How anyone could watch low quality streaming content in a 320 x 240 window for 45 minutes is beyond me?

They're not all like that. The site linked to episodes of the Wire that were DivX quality and could be watched on full screen.

Of course, one could always go to the source, but meh........

humbert

basquille wrote: »

Useless site anyways.. good riddance!

How anyone could watch low quality streaming content in a 320 x 240 window for 45 minutes is beyond me?

Yeah, the sites that use flash videos are awful but divx content is very watchable and requires very modest bandwidth.

humbert

I wonder if any lawyer types could shed light on where this puts torrent sites? Like the site in question they do not host material but they do facilitate copyright theft.

Personally I don't think torrent sites should be held accountable as they are not breaching copyright laws, in much the same way I don't think the writers of file sharing software should be held accountable, and the same goes for boards in that they shouldn't be held accountable for what it's member post.

I vaguely recall reading about some law being passed by the European Parliament giving agencies like FACT more powers.

Faith

There was another site like the one closed that was threatened with lots of lawsuits from big companies like Fox for linking to copyright material. They took an awful lot of stuff down following that.

Sites like YouTube host copyright material, but do remove it if it's reported to them. I think they've got themselves covered with disclaimers and T&Cs stating that copyrighted material will not be hosted, and will be deleted. However, the sites that link to the material are technically facilitating copyright infringement.

An Citeog

humbert wrote: »

I wonder if any lawyer types could shed light on where this puts torrent sites? Like the site in question they do not host material but they do facilitate copyright theft.

Personally I don't think torrent sites should be held accountable as they are not breaching copyright laws, in much the same way I don't think the writers of file sharing software should be held accountable, and the same goes for boards in that they shouldn't be held accountable for what it's member post.

I vaguely recall reading about some law being passed by the European Parliament giving agencies like FACT more powers.

Theoretically they shouldn't but it's still an offence to facilitate copyright infringement. It's a lot easier for the authorities to go after the sites (eg. Napster, Boards, the particular site in question) than it is to go after individual users. The logic behind it is that if they stop the supply, they'll somehow put an end to file sharing. It doesn't work like that though.

Red Alert

Theoretically sites like that are no more illegal than telling someone on a bus where they can get a rip of a DVD without actually providing it to them. IMHO the 'industry' has overstepped the mark on this one and the police/whoever have shown themselves to have no more ethics than the cat in shutting down a non-illegal site.

Sully

I enjoyed the site, but I never used it much. I think the owner of this site honestly thought it was perfectly legal so continued on with it. I dont see the problem with viewing the videos online - you couldnt directly download them and its not like the quality was perfect!

EDIT: From the sites FAQ (Google Cache version) on October 19th (guess it was only just taken down)

Is this site legal? Don't make me call my lawyer.
We provide links, nothing is wrong with that.

Nick_oliveri

Couldn't be more disgusted at this. $ > Morals.

eirebhoy

I have a site bookmarked that provides links to anything and everything. All the files are on rapidshare and uploaded by different people. Who's breaking the law?

Dave!

Nick_oliveri wrote: »

Couldn't be more disgusted at this. $ > Morals.

Morals eh?

I'm not sure that the owner of the site was taking any moral stance by starting it. It was a commercial venture no doubt. There's nothing moral about copyright theft (and I don't say this from a high-horse, since I have been known to take part in said).

Caliden

Awwww man, that's where I used to go for my weekly heroes fix. They usually had it faster than if I downloaded it from a torrent.

onechewy

Sorry, but if you're hosting a site like that.. you're a silly billy, cause in times lke these, the authorities are tryin to make a bit of noise.

Question though, I overheard two dudes braggin that torrents are basically untraceable.. is that true? Aplogies if this gets locked, but I'm just honestly wondering, I don't use them myself. I still love the whole buzz of buyin me some choons in the shop!

uglyjohn

this is all very mysterious.... can someone please mention somethig distinctive about the site.

Terry

The site provided links to copyrighted material.
Now it doesn't.

ian_m

Thats a pity. I don't see why there should be a problem with linking. Why don't they arrest all of the Internet service providers for having illegal traffic in their infrastructure?

No doubt someone somewhere will find another way around things.

Nick_oliveri

DaveMcG wrote:

It was a commercial venture no doubt.

Well he was making money off it then it was stupid. If the revenue from the google spnsored ads was paying for the server that hosted the links then i dont see a problem.

Yes he was a silly billy but i dont see how this is illegal. Hes been arrested, they went for the middleman.

Careful now lads. You know them copywrited images some of ye have in yer sigs or avatars, and some of ye on your bebo/myspace?

$750 a song
$750 an image?

Its nearly the same thing. The one thing i dont condone is having them movies linked. That was really stupid. In the article you can see they mentioned movies specifically, such as Ratatouille, hinting at the possibility that it was pixar or some such producer that put in the complaint/pushed for action.

Im not starting an arguement about TV piracy, but if i missed an episode of father ted and caught the end of it on tv3, then thought to meself, i might as well watch in bad quality on tvlinks and catch the missed funnays, who am i hurting? The advertisers? I dont pay attention to those ridiculous ads, who does? I dont want cillit bang/the lynx attraction/ a tracker mortgage.