

 Leading ‘Ethical’ TV Show BitTorrent Tracker Shut Down By FACT - happyman
http://torrentfreak.com/leading-ethical-tv-show-bittorrent-tracker-shut-down-by-fact-120827/

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cleaver
I can't state for sure what is the legal status of UKNova. However, they have
worked with copyright holders to ensure that they are not infringing. Most of
the content is free to air British TV shows, that in many cases can be
downloaded for free from within the UK. UKNova helps make this content
available outside the country.

Their policy is to take down any content that is available commercially. IE:
once the box set comes out, you can no longer share it. Other specific content
cannot be shared even if there is no non-commercial source. It is easy to get
banned from the service, so users are very compliant.

There are a lot of expatriate Brits who will miss the service, not to mention
fans of British TV everywhere.

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mikeryan
_However, they have worked with copyright holders to ensure that they are not
infringing._

Um, your own statement contradicts itself.

 _Most of the content is free to air British TV shows, that in many cases can
be downloaded for free from within the UK. UKNova helps make this content
available outside the country._

This _is_ infringement.

BTW if you're an expatriate Brit who wants to access this content you can pony
up about $5 a month for a VPN service with an endpoint out of the UK and still
access all this content.

~~~
mjs7231
_BTW if you're an expatriate Brit who wants to access this content you can
pony up about $5 a month for a VPN service with an endpoint out of the UK and
still access all this content._

Isn't that just as illegal as downloading it? Or is it more legal because it's
more technically savvy?

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TazeTSchnitzel
Title misleading in two ways:

1\. I read "Ethical" as "Legal" myself, but that's a minor point

2\. FACT didn't shut them down, they shut themselves down because they are
scared of FACT

~~~
norswap
> 1\. I read "Ethical" as "Legal"

They are wildly different things tough. One is about what is right (and is as
such subjective) and the other is about what is authorized (and as such,
_should be_ objective).

I believe it's better to be ethical than to be legal. As you might have
guessed, ianal.

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
I realise that, I just misunderstood the title's meaning.

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goatforce5
Just because the thing you want to consume isn't available in your market in
the format that you want at the price you want to pay, it doesn't make it
right or ethical to go and pirate it.

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dododo
these torrent sites seem to have a business model that makes them money, even
a profit. what prevents larger media companies from adopting this proven(?)
business model?

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legutierr
Two reasons:

* The torrent sites don't have to spend money producing content. If they had to actually make the content they were promoting, would they be making a profit?

* Even if it were possible to make money under this model, it would be much less than the big media companies are making now. Why would they switch?

~~~
JonLim
> _Even if it were possible to make money under this model, it would be much
> less than the big media companies are making now. Why would they switch?_

Well, they're not making money from these people anyway, why not find a way to
monetize them? You don't cease your current distribution practices, you are
merely creating an alternate way to monetize those people who you viewed as
"stealing" in the first place.

~~~
goatforce5
There's some obscure home improvement shows from overseas that I really enjoy
watching. I'm surprised a local-to-me cable channel doesn't pick it up as
cheap content, because it's well produced and pulls in big audiences in it's
home market.

I'd happily pay $20 or so to be able to download/stream a season of it. But I
suspect there's not enough people like me in the foreign-to-them markets who
would pay the money to make it worth their while to get it on to iTunes (or
similar), write some press releases, update their website to say it's
available, etc.

