One of the world’s most strictly regulated and ethically proud
torrent websites, UKNova, has been forced to announce its imminent
closure, after FACT – the UK arm of the Motion Picture Association of
America (MPAA) – serviced it with a cease and desist order. Despite full
compliance from UKNova regarding the links in question, FACT claimed
that any and all links on the site were infringing unless direct
permission had been given by the content holder for them to appear.
To put this into context, compared to
the many torrent sites that have no sharing guidelines – the places
UKNova visitors will now undoubtedly use instead – UKNova operated its
torrent search and trackers with a strict code of guidelines. No content
that was available on DVD, video, premium content channels or streaming
services was allowed on the site, in any fashion. There was even a
guideline that said up to two weeks before a DVD release date for a TV
series or show, all torrents that allowed for the download of that
content would be removed.
In short, UKNova went above and beyond
to make its site as copyright holder friendly as possible. It provided
links to content that wasn’t available but as soon as it became so,
those links were summarily removed and never added again.
Despite these moves by the site’s owners
however, FACT made it quite clear that it had no intention of leaving
it alone, so the owners have announced the closure. Understandably so,
considering the four year prison sentence recently handed out to SurfTheChannel owner, Anton Vickerman.
The people who run UKNova have families,
careers and professional reputations that could be menaced by lengthy
legal proceedings, whether successful or not. Whilst we believe that
FACT are wrong both legally and morally on account of the strong ‘no
commercial content’ stance that we have always taken, we are not in a
position to be able to risk lengthy and costly court battles to prove
this,” said one site admin to TorrentFreak.
Source: kitguru
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