Oct 24 2007

TVLinks Was Busted for ‘Selling’ Trademarked Goods?

  • Written by soulxtc
  • 4 Comments


Admin was apparently arrested for suspicion of supplying property with a registered trademark without permission, making the case even more confusing.

Many have wondered how it was possible that TVLinks was busted recently when it all did was merely list links to pirated content and never actually hosted any material.

The Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) accused TVLinks of being guilty of the “facilitation of copyright infringement,” a dubious charge at best because it would mean that any person who links to questionable material could also be responsible for similar “facilitation.” It would have meant that everybody would have to determine the legality of a link’s destination and make for a multitude of legal headaches.

Now it seems that the Gloucestshire police who arrested the 26yo admin of the site have at last confirmed what the charges against him are. According to The Register he was arrested under section 92 of the Trade Mark Act, on suspicion of supplying property with a registered trademark without permission.

The TVLinks case is certain to be an important test case of UK trademark laws because it involves no sale of actual property as the Trade Mark Act was intended to govern. Lawyers for FACT are apparently to argue that the links he posted on his site constitute the “supplying of property with a registered trademark without permission.” The sale involved stems from the fact that visitors click on ads on the site and thus earn the owner a profit.

Struan Robertson, legal eagle at Pinsent Masons, and editor of Out-Law.com shared his amazement with the development in the case, saying that “I’ve never heard of using trademarks law for anything like this.”

“There are criminal provisions in the Trade Marks Act, but they are intended to catch the sale of counterfeit goods, not the supply of a service. I’d be surprised if the provision of links was found to be a criminal offence under the Trade Marks Act.”

Whether or not FACT will prevail in the case obviously remains to be seen, but one thing’s for certain, and that’s that the it will chart new copyright territory for many. For it seems to be the fact that he profited from the site and therefore made a sort of “sale” by linking to trademarked goods that’s the crux of their argument here, meaning that if he simply removed the ads would the TVLinks site have then been legal?

Robertson furthered that “It sounds like they are trying to crow-bar activity that looks wrong into laws that aren’t really designed to deal with it.”

Looking for more stuff to watch or download?
TVLinks Shut Down, Owner Arrested!
Tips on how to not get busted for file-sharing
3 Quick Ways to Watch Movies for FREE!
3 quick ways to watch TV shows for FREE
BitTorrent torrent sites & search engines
uTorrent – A Beginner’s guide to BitTorrent downloading
News Tip? Comment? Suggestion? jared@zeropaid.com

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Comments

  1. Elton1

    I have made the following site so people can post news and comment on this subject all in one place and hopefully raise a good deal of support. Please check it out and tell people.
    http://www.save-tv-links.co.uk
    Anyone who has any ideas that would make this site more functional please get in touch.

    Elton1

  2. LaSan

    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…! ;)

  3. Cytrik

    So does that now mean that Zeropaid is going to be held accountable for the sidereel link that is now on this page? This whole thing is complete and total nonsense.

  4. picololo

    check out fnuz you can search for free movies throught hundred of sites
    http://www.fnuz.com

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