A statement from the Federation Against Copyright Theft
(FACT) said that a 26-year-old from Cheltenham was arrested on
Thursday "in connection with offences relating to the facilitation
of copyright infringement on the internet."
The arrest came during an operation by officers from
Gloucestershire County Council Trading Standards Service working
with investigators from FACT and Gloucestershire Police. The man
has been released pending further enquiries.
The site, TV Links, formerly at tv-links.co.uk, was providing
links to movies and TV shows that had been copied to the web in
breach of copyright. It did not appear to be hosting any of the
content itself.
According to FACT's statement, "Sites such as TV Links
contribute to and profit from copyright infringement by
identifying, posting, organising, and indexing links to infringing
content found on the internet that users can then view on demand by
visiting these illegal sites."
However, the nature of any charges that may follow is
unclear.
While FACT's statement cited "offences relating to the
facilitation of copyright infringement," Gloucestershire police
told IT news site The Register that the man has been "arrested for
supplying property with a registered trade mark without
permission."
The first of these is not an offence and the second does not fit
the circumstances, according to Kim Walker, head of intellectual
property at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind OUT-LAW.COM.
"We don't have an offence in the UK for facilitation of
copyright infringement," said Walker. "Instead, it is possible that
prosecutors could attempt to characterise this as an offence of
'distributing' infringing copies or 'communicating' copies to the
public in the course of a business."
"If TV Links carried advertising, it's arguably a business. If
it didn't carry advertising, it can still be criminal if the site
can be shown to affect the copyright owner in a prejudicial way,"
he said.
The offence carries a maximum penalty of 10 years' imprisonment
– though Walker said the provision of links has never before been
classed as a form of distribution or communication in terms of the
legislation.
The use of trade mark laws to prosecute the individual seems an
even bigger challenge, he said. "The Trade Marks Act makes the
unauthorised use of trade marks in relation to goods an offence;
but this is a law that was written to catch counterfeit goods," he
said.
"The provision of links is surely a service, not a sale of
goods," said Walker. "It seems an unlikely way to deal with the
problem."
In 2005, the Norwegian Supreme Court found a student guilty of
'abetting' an illegal act after he ran a website that linked to
infringing MP3 files. Frank Allan Bruvik was fined 100,000 kroner
(approximately £8,000).
In April 2007, a proposed Directive on the enforcement of
intellectual property rights was approved by the European
Parliament. If approved by the Council of Ministers, aiding or
abetting and inciting infringements will become criminal
offences.
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