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Even the TV shows can be “pirated”, did you know that? Don’t laugh, you’d be surprised how many people in big countries don’t even know or are aware about that. Especially in UK, but less amusing is that the (British) Federation Against Copyright Theft recently discovered a pirate TV Shows website, whose owner was a-26-year-old man. Not only him was arrested but also some members of the moderation staff.

The raiding procedure was a success that followed the investigations of members of FACT and the local police. The site TV-Links.co.uk gathered links towards TV shows posted on various video sharing or file hosting websites, like Google Video and YouTube. The site itself did not host any files that would infringe copyright, and the sites hosting such files did nothing to remove those files.

FACT thinks that “sites such as TV-Links contribute to and profit from copyright infringement by identifying, posting, organizing, and indexing links to infringing content found on the Internet that users can then view on demand by visiting these illegal sites.” Jack Schofield, commentator for The Guardian newspaper said: “It's a pity the Gloucestershire Police started with such small fry. There are a couple of multibillionaires called Larry Page and Sergey Brin - the founders of Google - who provide vast numbers of links to content that is being illegally distributed.”

FACT parody in IT Crowd TV Show
My opinion is that we should not point fingers as long as there are still social and economical issues in some countries – yes, they had to start somewhere, but selling pirated products in the streets is one thing and a site that represents merely an index of links is not a big target. Kieron Sharp, director general for FACT added that TV-Links is just the first target in a larger “crackdown” on web piracy. Will he keep his word?