As many people are starting to realised TV-Link, a site which linked to TV programmes of many types, has been shut down and the man behind it arrested.
Details were reported last Friday, with FACT (Federation Against Copyright Theft) being behind the action.
The site had been a firm favourite with those at Digital-Lifestyles, as it made available content that just isn’t available anywhere else.
To those of you who lived through the original rise of music sharing services, you’ll be experiencing a total sense of Deja-vu.
One of the major reasons that people resorted to using music sharing sites was that they couldn’t get access to the music in any other way. Many wanted to pay for the content, but just couldn’t get it.
The industry shouted ‘FOUL!’ because they saw it as theft of their content. The users responded with, “What do you expect?”
Having to resort to sharing network eventually bred a culture amoung the young that music didn’t have to get paid for – it’s the only way the knew when they grew up.
It’s just stunning to see that the TV and film world haven’t sorted themselves out by making their programmes available for people to watch online – in the time between then and now. The end result? People are bypassing the owners of the content and going to any source where they can find the programmes. Hence the rise of sites like TV-Link and AllUC.
Again we’ll see large media organisations shouting “FOUL!” and insisting that “Something must be done about this.”
If they hadn’t spent so much time worrying about trying to get DRM working – treating their customers a thieves – and more time getting the content ready to be available to their customers, they might not have been in this position.
Potentially it’s too late for the TV business to change like the music business is finally starting to do.
How many times does this have to be said before big business understands? – Technology is a steam roller, if you don’t get on board, you’ll end up getting crushed.
Agreed, the content distribution industry is changing rapidly with technology. This is a fine indicator that people do want to watch TV on the internet. Big corporations get the picture, they are just slow. If you need another TV Links site to go to, try going to http://tvlinksdb.com.
Its rediculous, many more will take its place. Shutting down the site doesnt remove the demand.
People will find another way. It’s ignorant for these media companies to think it will stop by shutting down these sites.
Beside they are incredibly stupid for doing so. I can’t tell you how many shows I’ve started to watch on regular television after giving them a try on TV-Links. There is no substitute for the real thing so people are always going to watch regular tv.
Where they are actually losing money is by shutting these sites down and people without the time or concern won’t give their regular television shows a try anyways. It doesn’t make sense to me.
I think it was a bad move to shut down tv links. What do people do who don’t live in America and have no access to shows? I am currently living in Japan and I would use tv links to watch the shows that I can’t see over here. I did use tv links when I was in America for shows that I could not find anywhere else. With some of the shows I watched all of the episodes were not online. I got a taste of what the show was like and then went out and bought it. I am not going to drop $30+or a box sex if I am not even sure if I like the show. I can’t see how these companies don’t realize that these sites can be good for business. I am sure I am not the only one who has gone out and bought a dvd after seeing it on tv links. I will miss tv links but there are other sites out there.
Please check out this site I have made:
http://www.save-tv-links.co.uk
The idea behind the site is to create a publicly accessible resource of accurate information on the tv-links case and create a discussion forum around it. It also exists to offer what ever support is possible to give to the innocent.
Anyone who can contribute or has any ideas that would make this site more functional please get in touch; the aim is too get as much information in one place as possible.
Elton1
Facilitation of copyright infringment…?!? that’s their argument ? Come on men..!! i can’t believe it… there’s no way linking is illegal, not a chance. that would make us all pirates. why don`t they shut down you tube or google. If that’s the case, I’m sure Google is the biggest “facilitator” of the world… ha ha ha but i’m taking all this in a real cool way, cause i found in sidereel the fountain that calms my thirst for tv series and movies..! LOL so that you can be calm too, here goes the link http://www.sidereel.com Oh, no..!! i just linked and facilitated piracy..!! who’s gonna protect me now..?? ha ha ha and there’s also stage 6 or Dailymotion, ups… I did it again…! ;)