Guilty Until Proven Licensed: FACT Shuts Down Torrent Tracker Despite Cooperation

from the wow dept

Another day, another overreach by the legacy players in the entertainment industry. Hot off its highly questionable win in the SurfTheChannel case, the "Federation Against Copyright Theft" (FACT) has forced torrent tracker UKNova to shut down. Now, some people will assume that this is just another torrent tracker, but the details raise some serious questions.

First of all, UKNova appears to have vigorously policed its listings, and was quick to take down content when it was shown to be infringing. The site also had strict rules about what could be listed, stating that it would not allow anything that was available commercially. So if it's available on DVD or on pay TV, it wasn't allowed and was blocked on the site. When FACT contacted them about some content, UKNova immediately removed the links. While this is the UK, rather than the US, this seems to follow the type of "good practices" found under the DMCA's safe harbors that indicate a site willing to act in good faith to prevent infringement. But... not according to FACT. With FACT, you're guilty until proven innocent:

“We immediately removed the alleged offending links to content that could be [connected to] the two companies and replied to FACT assuring them of our cooperation in the matter, but asking them to point out examples of potentially offending links,” a UKNova admin told us.

“ALL links or access to content provided by UKNova are infringing, unless you can prove that you have obtained explicit permission from the copyright holder for that content,” was FACT’s response.

Of course, under such rules, pretty much no user generated content sites could exist. And, given who backs FACT, perhaps that really is their goal...

Filed Under: guilty, proof, torrent tracker, uk
Companies: fact, uknova