I want to open a site about p2p programmes (Sopcast,tvu,tvants) but I will not put the working links at my site,so when the visitors click the links (forexample NBA matches),it will write "loading" or "couldnt connect" BUT it will NEVER work.Should I get punish because of this even the links will not work or they dont care if the links are working or not?
If you do not provide links to actual content than there isn't much they can do. If the links would actually work if somebody copied and pasted them, then you might run into problems.
no you will be fine I run alot of these sites and openly state i provide links to the stream its not illegal!!!! i even use adsense and have no problems
pixeladd, if you are linking to streams of copyrighted material that is infringing (I don't mean linking to BBC shows on the BBC site) then you may indeed be breaking the law. Case law shows that it is illegal in the US and the tv-link.co.uk case would suggest that it is illegal (or shortly will be) in the UK. Just because you haven't run into problems doesn't mean it is legal. I broke the spped limit laws in my car for 3 years before I got a ticket, but it was still illegal the first time I did it.
They can never do anything about it, though. For example say ISOHunt.com, they're a huge torrent search engine that link to torrents on other sites, BUT they have a section where they upload the best torrents themselves. They've ran into many problems, each of which they post the letters they recieve and the apparent court cases they have to go to.. Nothing ever happens, and 2days later they're stronger then ever. I think you'll be fine.. I wouldn't say it's illegal but ill be honest with you i don't really know much about it.. I just download the files not upload then XD
so if the links are not working,then there must not be a problem!!!But what if they go to judge and say that it was my intention to do something illegal even the links are not working?
callum, they're doing something about it right now. They are being sued by the MPAA. The owner has blocked access to the trackers by people in the US (though not the site). Lawsuits like this take years. The site is trying to rely on the DMCA by complying with takedown notices and assuming this will be enough to protect them. The Grokster case would show that the courts are saying that this is not enough. If there is substantial infringement on a system, so much as to show that people mainly use the system to infringe then DMCA does not protect that site. mustaineoz, if the links are correct but just not clickable from your site, then the same arguement could apply. There are no specific cases on that, but the direction the courts have taken on torrents, infringement without hosting, and even iframes would suggest they might very well see this as infringement as well. If the links do not work at all (not clicking on, not copy and pasting) then I don't believe copyright infringement could come into play. If anything, that would be a fraud case.