Is Linking Illegal?

Most of you should know or realised that TV-Links has been closed down. The reason being is that the owner of the site was arrested and the site was shut down by the police in the UK.

For those that don't know TV-Links was like an archive of videos found from other sites which showed TV shows, films, anime etc. Nothing on the site was uploaded to the site, it was all from external sources like Stage 6, Youtube, Veoh etc. All the site did was bring them together into one easy to use site. So the site was techincally a site with lots of links.

So it brings up the issue, is linking to copyrighted material against the law? So when we give someone a link to the latest episode of One Piece or Bleach we are breaking the law?

It also makes you think that the owners of youtube (google) or those who own veoh will be next since this is where the the copyrighted data is stored. Or will they just simply arrest those who aren't mulit-millionaires who can't afford the top lawyers. (as seen with TV-Links)

On paper TV-Links was a legal site, but was on the verge of piracy. But from the recent events it shows that linking is illegal, but do you agree?

 

Wow i dunno what to say that means its illegal and they'll just kill them ?
i find this very odd
i actually never seen a Tv link ...

 

Inferring from this 'linking is illegal' business technically we could all be breaking the law by linking our signatures. Let me clarify using my own signature.

I have a .gif of the video 'Cyanide' by Deathstars. If Deathstars cared enough to look where their media was being on the internet, I could be sued for the .gif file.

An unlikely scenario but what was happening with TV-links is much the same. The owner provided links to sites where media was stored Youtube, Stage6, etc. almost like a borderline piracy database.

I admit I miss it at times but life goes on.

 

If you compare it to another crime you can see where the police are coming from (This is going to sound silly >_>). Say someone murders someone, that person is the pirater who uploaded it in the first place. The person that creates the links is aiding people in accessing pirated content so it's like they are hiding the body or giving an alibi.

But what about sites like Google that link to everything? They link to illegal content all the time but you don't see them being sued >_>. I think it was the fact that it existed solely to help people get access to illegal content was the reason it was shut down and the owner arrested.

 

There is the question as to how far this should go. Pretty much everyone on the internet has links to some copyrighted image or character. The costs and manpower involved in successfully prosecuting everyone who has ever linked a video, music track or image would be almost unimaginable. Surely the more effective way is to tackle the source, not the linking site. After all to stop the link site all you need to do is render the links useless and it ceases to function. The downside on this is the big sites containing copyrighted material are rich and powerful, so no one is going to side against them. Media giants will try every trick in the book to stay active, taking out the smaller and more vulnerable linking sites, who didn't even claim ownership.

 

Also it would be smarter to keep the site open to follow the links to find and prosecute the actual law-breakers. The shutting down of tv-links will have sent a message to the illegal content holders who will now be long gone underground.

 

It's sad that TVL is down. Great site it was.

Linking isn't actually illegal itself. Depends what you link to...

And as Gharanth said, it's the smaller sites they try to hit on. Most of you should know what happened to OiNK....

Sites like these tend to leave. They really can't blame the powerful sites who actually broke the copyright. They can stop those who are showing it though, like Tv links.

 

Whoever brought up Google linking everywhere else and getting away with it is right.

But Google has something that TV-links didn't. Google has money. Tv-links was an independently run site. And Google is so powerful these days people are scared to say anything bad about them.

It's almost like how smaller shops go out of business when big corporations like Walmart move in. But that's a whole different discussion.

 

No wonder I couldn't get onto TVL. >_>;

As for the matter of it being a piracy or illegal issue... I don't see why having that website up is such a big problem. It's merely an easy to use source. Why would anyone care about it? Unless the owner was making profits off of it somehow (which I doubt he would do), then he shouldn't be arrested for something like having links on a site.

Maybe this is more on a personal issue for myself and the people, but still... if anything, TVL was getting it's other sites/sites it links to more popularity than TVL itself.

=/ *aspld*

 

:\ 'Tis a sad thing, it is. TVLinks used to be my number 1 but now it's dead anyway.

I basically agree with the people who've said it was no big deal. Although Bunterx puts a good one. >\

It's like half and half. But overall, it got no profit, I say it should've stayed.

 

I would've thought that copyright laws would've gotten them first. Well they did, just not in the way I thought they would.

 

Yes i know about it. It sucks since I always used to watch things on TV-LINKS. AND my dad might cancel the TV cable since it is screwing up the TV. Anyways, its fraud right? Umm even if it gives all us tv-lovers shows to watch, if we missed any, it still is wrong. Since every show watched on TV-Links did not make profit what-so-ever, the actors didn't get money *even though they make WAY TO MUCH MONEY*, the crew didn't, the helpers didn't, and the network didn't.

They get paid from ratings of people watching the show. They spend SO MUCH money on one episode, so they do deserve money. Therefore, it is bad, even though I do it...

 

I would say that as far as I know, linking to other sites, as long as you gave credit for where it came from, was not illegal. However, if people are copying shows and putting them up, that may be illegal on a separate issue. It does suck that the site no longer is up because I used to like going there since I'm not an avid television watcher but like a few shows. I'm glad that there are networks though that will post up shows we can watch now such as Cartoon Network and Adult Swim, Comedy Central and some others. I do wonder and will have to look into why the site was shut down because that is surprising if all they were doing was linking to other sites to let people watch. I would have assumed it was because some of the other sites used were illegal in themselves, but then I'd be confused why the UK didn't just go after those sites instead.

 

TV Links gone forever :(

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

read the article, explains all like why it's been gone for over 2 weeks. i liked that place

 

Yeah, oh the humanity. ):


And this topic relates to another thread, so..

-merges-

 

is illegal cuz the show usually get sponsored by other companies. the companies pay so that WE can watch, but they get no payment if watching online

 

But I used to the site to see shows that aren't available in the Uk at all so isn't that in theory unfair???

or are they gonna make us buy DVD's of shows we like that are never gonna be in the Uk ever (like Code Lyoko which disappeared slowly and One Piece which has no signs of returning). That would be cruelty in itself because I used the site to gain access to things I can't gain acess to without taking a plane flight to another country or use a dodgy site to buy DVD's of that show...

...it's just to make the publics lives more difficult isn't it??? (I place my money the conservatives were behind the death of tvlinks somehow, even if they're not in power right now).

 

I don't know, Darkandroid, but just thinking about it gives me the chills. Good thing I haven't uploaded any videos of Kingdom Hearts Gameplay or anything yet...