The sad demise of TVLinks

If it felt like there was any lull in the media business's crackdown on Internet piracy, that myth has sure been shut down today. The Internet currently mourns the death of TVLinks, the popular site linking users to literally hundreds of TV shows, movies, and music videos (and one of my personal favorite websites), which was shut down today, coinciding with raids (!) and the arrest of its 26-year old UK-based owner. (If anyone has any delusions that this is like the last time TVLinks got shut down and simply moved to a different server --- the arrest much kills that dream). All that is left of the majestic site now, http://tv-links.co.uk, is a sad greeting by a "page not found" error message :(

After the 15-minute sob session I had after hearing this news (along with the fond memories of the last shows I watched from the site -- Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman -- I warned you I liked trashy TV shows) I started feeling skeptical. Do they really have a case against this guy? The connection between hosting copyrighted material and linking to it is pretty dubious at best. Plus, it makes little sense to me why the authorities chose to go after TVLinks rather than using it as a roadmap to target sites that actually are hosting copyrighted content. Granted, I'm not too keen on all the legal prerequisites for going after sites hosting copyrighted content, but all the same, going after the middleman seems like a pretty shortsighted way of approaching Internet piracy -- it pretty much sends a signal that users need to be more subtle about the way they find and tell each other about free online media. I really feel like most people who were loyal TVLinks fans will grieve for a few minutes, realize they still know where all their shows are being hosted (Stage6, Dailymotion, Toudou, Veoh, YouTube), shrug, and still go about streaming pirated material for free.

On a related note, I'm pretty aware and amused about this nonchalant tone towards Internet piracy in itself -- everyone knows it's illegal, and everyone does it without really thinking twice. But Internet piracy in itself brings up the oxymoronic idea of media as a business, or as my Masscomm roots like to call it, "culture as a commodity" -- that there can be a direct clash between the cultural value and usage of media and the business interests that fuel its production, not just in media creation but in media consumption. The whole Internet piracy debate makes this clash painfully blatant.

But whether anyone likes it or not, there's a begrudged but inevitable symbiotic relationship between media and business --- and I know after the whole Napster debate this issue has been hashed out time and time again. But the corporations are in for a big disappointment if they're deluded enough to think that cracking down on sites like TVLinks is going to deter anybody from uploading and downloading shows and movies anymore, and it's also overly idealistic to think that these copyright laws are going to stop being enforced. There have been some budding attempts at creating a happy medium -- buying songs off iTunes started that off, and you can stream CBS shows from the CBS website. Still, there's something about downloading shows and watching pirated stuff that's so....easy.

Still, the battle rages. TVLinks is another casualty in this ongoing war, joining the graves of our old friends Napster and Suprnova (oh man, remember Suprnova?). Rest in peace <3

p.s. okay the pictures in this post might look a little cheesy ---- they're all i could find!