The Open Rights Group blog reports that the man behind TV-Links a website providing links to unlawful copies of TV shows has been arrested for "the facilitation of copyright infringement on the internet" and unlawful use of trade marks (section 92 of the Trade Marks Act 1994).
On the facts that we know so far, it is difficult to see how the providing of links to infringing copies of TV shows gives rise to a civil or criminal liability under UK law. This is a view supported both by the Open Rights Group blog and Out-law.com. The latter suggests that providing such links might constitute an offence under other parts of copyright law (distributing infringing copies or communicating copies to the public in the course of business), but it is again difficult to see how the facts meet these offences.
As we saw in my guide to the law on hyperlinking, in some countries links to unlawful materials have themselves been ruled to be unlawful. However, such rulings are based upon specific laws in those countries. This doesn't appear to be the case with TV-Links.
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
Posted by: http://www.save-tv-links.co.uk | 25 October 2007 at 11:31 AM