However this next man differs from Mr. Schmitz in that he wasn't allowing things to be downloaded for users to do with as they pleased. Rather, he had simply a hosting site, similar to YouTube, but even more basic.
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| TVShack (via Honeytechblog.com) |
The website TVShack, run by a 23 year old U.K. student, Richard O'Dwyer, collects links to other sites which (illegally) stream movies and television episodes. While on the site, a browser can search for a show or movie they want to watch, and then they are provided with several links to different websites hosting the actual content. Some of these sites are Vidbux.com, Movshare.com, and of course the now forever busted Megaupload.com.
The site’s .net domain was first seized by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in October 2010, prompting O’Dwyer to switch to a .cc domain that was set up with a registrar outside of the U.S. — thus not subject to seizure. O’Dwyer then took the site offline back in May after learning that U.K. authorities had dropped their investigation due to the extradition request. [-Tom Cheredar of VentureBeat.com*]What makes this situation trickier, is that O'Dwyer hasn't directly violated copyright, but instead has pointed is viewers in the right, illegal, direction; the shall we say, instigator. Or should we?
The thing I really don’t understand is why U.S. authorities would want to go after a guy who’s basically doing half of the work for them. You’d think the government would be happy that someone was collecting a nice tidy list of places that were violating copyrights by illegally streaming content, which they could then pursue. [Ibid.]I too had this thought while jumping fresh into the story. Although I wouldn't let the driver of a getaway car off the hook, I also wouldn't strangle him before catching the direct criminal. If this site is to blame for everyone's trouble making, what is to say a large website like YouTube isn't also? With millions of users uploading hundreds of videos, many of which appear to be in violation of some sort of copyright on visual and audible media, YouTube is just as easily used as a "gateway" website, even more directly in that they also host the videos.
I'm not trying to blame YouTube for our problems, and anyone that knows me personally knows that I'm the last person to ever want our world's favorite video hosting website shut down. However it does change my perspective when searching for the differences between these websites. Although YouTube does a lot to try to control how much its users post illegally, their staff is obviously far out numbered when compared to the amount of content uploaded hourly.
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| An example of a common message a YouTube user may receive once their video has been removed due to copyright complaints from a third party. (YouTube Copyright Center) |
But I suppose it must be the thought that counts. YouTube, unlike TVShack, actually handles its complaints, and works to quickly and clearly deal with each situation, as well as labels out what can and can't be uploaded in their Terms and Conditions. And maybe that's all that it really takes in our rampaging internet world... seeing that a website or company actually cares enough to directly contact and try to put a stop to the violations, whether always successful or not.
*"TVShack creator being extradited to the U.S. on copyright violation charges" from VentureBeat.com in the media section. Article can be found here.
