Mon Oct 22, 2007 12:21 pm
The End of Freedom on the Internet?
read this story:- TV-Links closed by cops
here's The Register's take on it:- same story
Now, this case is passingly similar to the case a few weeks ago of the woman in the US who got saddled with how many? hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay the RIAA in damages. That was pretty disgusting and blatant bullying, but this British one has very serious ramifications.
Firstly, this is not a criminal matter; so why were the cops involved? Copyright infringement is a civil matter, not criminal, no criminal laws were broken. As the cops themselves admit, they actually don't know what they're supposed to have arrested him for! which is a hell of an admission in itself (but he'd still have his DNA and fingerprints taken in police-state Britain)
Secondly, let's have a look at was he's been doing? providing links to copyrighted material? actually he was providing links to links on other sites, not to the material itself. All the other sites were in foreign countries ike Japan, so the case is several steps removed. So F.A.C.T. had to give the cops a trumped-up charge of "facilitatiing infringement" - whatever the flup that means. I'd like to see that defined in an English criminal law textbook, as I don't believe that it even exists. It's been synthesized out of other copyright law and some decorative legalese for dramatic effect.
Thirdly, let's assume for the sake of argument that he was doing a bad thing (which I don't accept for a moment.) If so, then where does this leave Google, YouTube, and a plethora of other sites that carry links to material that is supposed to be copyrighted. I doubt that the cops will be busting down their doors. looks to me like it's another case of institutional bullying - pick on the little guy, the easy target, use the cops to terrorise him into complying - while the material still remains on the interweb, you just have to search a little harder for it (Stage 6, Veoh, Todou, Guba etc)
Both the involvement of the Police, the arrest itself, and the actions of F.A.C.T. are very, very questionableable and should seriously be investigated. This is a most improper use of Police time and public resources. IMHO, that is, but I doubt that I'm alone in that opinion. What do you think?
(just to point out that - I don't condone blatant piracy, and I don't necessarily beleive that freedom is lost forever on the internet because of this case - but I do think that over the last few years, that freedom is being increasingly eroded, partly due to political pressure, also, and perhaps more so, due to commercial pressures and manipulation. I don't think that the battle has been lost yet nor that is necessarily will be.)
Edited by - Tawakalna on 10/22/2007 2:59:59 PM
here's The Register's take on it:- same story
Now, this case is passingly similar to the case a few weeks ago of the woman in the US who got saddled with how many? hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay the RIAA in damages. That was pretty disgusting and blatant bullying, but this British one has very serious ramifications.
Firstly, this is not a criminal matter; so why were the cops involved? Copyright infringement is a civil matter, not criminal, no criminal laws were broken. As the cops themselves admit, they actually don't know what they're supposed to have arrested him for! which is a hell of an admission in itself (but he'd still have his DNA and fingerprints taken in police-state Britain)
Secondly, let's have a look at was he's been doing? providing links to copyrighted material? actually he was providing links to links on other sites, not to the material itself. All the other sites were in foreign countries ike Japan, so the case is several steps removed. So F.A.C.T. had to give the cops a trumped-up charge of "facilitatiing infringement" - whatever the flup that means. I'd like to see that defined in an English criminal law textbook, as I don't believe that it even exists. It's been synthesized out of other copyright law and some decorative legalese for dramatic effect.
Thirdly, let's assume for the sake of argument that he was doing a bad thing (which I don't accept for a moment.) If so, then where does this leave Google, YouTube, and a plethora of other sites that carry links to material that is supposed to be copyrighted. I doubt that the cops will be busting down their doors. looks to me like it's another case of institutional bullying - pick on the little guy, the easy target, use the cops to terrorise him into complying - while the material still remains on the interweb, you just have to search a little harder for it (Stage 6, Veoh, Todou, Guba etc)
Both the involvement of the Police, the arrest itself, and the actions of F.A.C.T. are very, very questionableable and should seriously be investigated. This is a most improper use of Police time and public resources. IMHO, that is, but I doubt that I'm alone in that opinion. What do you think?
(just to point out that - I don't condone blatant piracy, and I don't necessarily beleive that freedom is lost forever on the internet because of this case - but I do think that over the last few years, that freedom is being increasingly eroded, partly due to political pressure, also, and perhaps more so, due to commercial pressures and manipulation. I don't think that the battle has been lost yet nor that is necessarily will be.)
Edited by - Tawakalna on 10/22/2007 2:59:59 PM
