October 22, 2007
tv-links.co.uk Man arrested for linking to pirated content – but what's the crime?
Following the closing down of tv-links.co.uk by the the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) and the arrest of 26-year-old from Cheltenham who ran the website, Out-Law.com looks into the legality of prosecuting linking as a criminal offence.
"... The site, TV Links, formerly at tv-links.co.uk, was providing links to movies and TV shows that had been copied to the web in breach of copyright. It did not appear to be hosting any of the content itself.
... While FACT's statement cited "offences relating to the facilitation of copyright infringement," Gloucestershire police told IT news site The Register that the man has been "arrested for supplying property with a registered trade mark without permission."
The first of these is not an offence and the second does not fit the circumstances, according to Kim Walker, head of intellectual property at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind OUT-LAW.COM."
"We don't have an offence in the UK for facilitation of copyright infringement," said Walker. "Instead, it is possible that prosecutors could attempt to characterise this as an offence of 'distributing' infringing copies or 'communicating' copies to the public in the course of a business."
... In 2005, the Norwegian Supreme Court found a student guilty of 'abetting' an illegal act after he ran a website that linked to infringing MP3 files. Frank Allan Bruvik was fined 100,000 kroner (approximately £8,000).
Related article:
Related cases filed by the MPAA:
-- MPAA sues another ShowStash.com for illegal linking
-- MPAA sues YouTVpc.com and Peekvid.com for linking to infringing content
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