Entertainment Industry Decides FileSoup Doesn't Have Enough Publicity; Has Owner Arrested
from the forums-are-bad,-m'kay? dept
A bunch of people have been submitting variations on the story that a guy who runs a site called FileSoup has been arrested. FileSoup apparently was a tracker site for a while, but for the past few years has actually just been a forum where people post links -- many of which, one assumes, were for unauthorized content. It's a little unclear what he was arrested for. At times they quizzed him about FileSoup (and didn't seem to fully understand the technology). But on the form they gave him, it said he was arrested for downloading movies (to which he wonders why that's not a civil offense). It'll be worth watching as more details come out, but it's a bit troubling when someone is arrested for running a forum, when the real concern is the actions of the people in the forum, rather than the forum host (admittedly, they may have evidence of direct infringement by him as well, but the questioning seemed to cover the operation of FileSoup itself).Either way, you do have to wonder what good this does the entertainment industry or anti-piracy organization FACT (who many believe is closely involved in the investigation -- though that has not been confirmed). Frankly, I'd never heard of FileSoup, and having the name in headlines all over is likely to only give it that much more attention. The same thing has happened in the past multiple times, including with sites like The Pirate Bay, which most people had never heard of prior to it being raided by the government. So, as long as the site remains up, more people find out about it. If the site goes down, the users quickly scatter to alternative sites. What has the entertainment industry accomplished? Not much useful.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: file sharing, forum, uk
Companies: filesoup
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
What is more worrying...
I'm surprised that he hasn't filed theft charges, and any lawyer worth his salt should be able to have any 'evidence' dismissed since the machines were out of police hands and in the possession of a private company inimical to the defendant.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: What is more worrying...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: What is more worrying...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Now, you all know that's not going to happen
The real question is, where do we all move when the US is so full of idiots that we can't even breathe? (Who is John Galt?)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Totally misleading title!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Totally misleading title!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Gestapo...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The claimant, Scopelight Limited, ran a website (Surfthechannel.com) with a video search engine with thousands of links to third-party website videos. The Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) represents the interests of the audiovisual industry.
Investigations by FACT suggested the claimant company and its owners, Anton Benjamin Vickerman and Kelly-Anne Vickerman,a married couple from Gateshead, were hosting internet sites from which copyrighted material was being downloaded. Northumbria Police applied for a section 8 warrant under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) to search the claimants' premises, resulting in 31 items of property being seized, including the computer towers and servers. The force handed some items to FACT.
By 12 December 2008, the Crown Prosecution Service had decided not to prosecute. The force notified the claimants of this, indicating that the property could be returned.All property subsequently came into FACT's possession. Following the CPS decision, FACT decided to bring a private criminal prosecution.
On 22 January 2009, the claimants began proceedings for return of the property and damages for conversion. A day later, FACT alerted the force of its decision to bring a private prosecution. On 28 January, the claimant applied for an interim order for delivery of the property, which Mrs Justice Sharp granted. On 12 February, FACT began the private prosecution.
http://surfthechannelisnotillegal.blogspot.com/
[ link to this | view in chronology ]