UKNova R.I.P....

[Absorb the anus burn]

Although it ceased to be the essential UK TV torrent site once 'The Box' built up a library, UKNova has just kicked the bucket following a cease and desist notice from FACT. UKNova was one of the more honest torrent sites who never allowed rips of official DVDs or commercially available material....

Sad.

From 'Doomwatch' to 'Out Of The Unknown' via 'The Mind Beyond' the tracker gave me access to all sorts of archive TV I could only imagine seeing...

[GaspardW]

Aw fuck that for a game of soldiers. It was the insane archive stuff that I loved; I picked up rips of some Baird phonovision discs there once, for god's sake.

[Mister Six]

There's nothing on the UK Nova main page. What exactly did FACT complain about, given that the properties on the site weren't commercially available elsewhere? And what actual power does it hold? All I know about it is the shit, pencil-drawn adverts you'd get in Your Sinclair, and the trailers you're get on the front of movies in the 80s.

[unky herb]

Bull spit!

I get Click downloaded from RSS every week. I hope all the cappers migrate to somewhere else. And not The Box.

[biggytitbo]

I haven't used it in years, but it was great I'm it's day. Whilst its clearly a spiteful idiotic move, it does seem a bit like it had been superceded by iPlayer and other on demand services.

[NoSleep]

There's nothing on the UK Nova main page. What exactly did FACT complain about, given that the properties on the site weren't commercially available elsewhere? And what actual power does it hold? All I know about it is the poop, pencil-drawn adverts you'd get in Your Sinclair, and the trailers you're get on the front of movies in the 80s.

To the members of UKNova.

UKNova is being forced to change. We have been issued with a "cease and desist" order by FACT (The Federation Against Copyright Theft).

Despite our efforts to cooperate with the UK media companies, FACT have stated: "ALL links or access to content provided by UKNova are infringing, unless it can be proven that explicit permission from the copyright holder for that content has been obtained".

Whilst we believe that they 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. Therefore we have no other option but to close down the trackers. It has not been an easy decision to take, but it is apparently our only option.

The forums will remain open for business as usual. Torrents and their associated pages will disappear over the next few hours.

Our heartfelt thanks go to all, past and present, who have worked tirelessly, often thanklessly, for the good of our community.

[McQ]

So, all that referring to it as "The Other Place" or "You, Cain Over" was for nought!

[Mister Six]

Hopefully someone can just set up a mirror site from Sweden or something. How does the law work in that regard? If I were in the UK, running a UK Nova-type site from Sweden (or similar laissez-faire country), would I still be open to attacks from FACT busybodies?

[GaspardW]

What exactly did FACT complain about, given that the properties on the site weren't commercially available elsewhere? And what actual power does it hold?

Short version is they have no statutory powers whatsoever, but they take private legal actions through the courts against alleged copyright violators on behalf of their membership. [It's usually worth mentioning at this point that copyright infringement is a civil tort, not a criminal offence, despite what FACT would have you believe.] The UKN front page says that they got a Cease & Desist order, which is a civil matter, not a criminal one. What FACT do have is a functionally limitless supply of cash to pay solicitors, barristers and suchlike, which I suspect the people who ran UKN do not. They *could* fight the order, but it would take a hell of a lot of money, and it's enormously unlikely they'd win.

[kidsick5000]

Didn't that site have an unwritten agreement with the beeb that as long as it wasn't commercially available they'd leave them be?

[NoSleep]

It wasn't the Beeb that reared up.

edit: but you're, kind of, right. I recall that the Beeb publicly acknowledged their presence, possibly without a namecheck.

[HappyTree]

I haven't used it in years, but it was great I'm it's day. Whilst its clearly a spiteful idiotic move, it does seem a bit like it had been superceded by iPlayer and other on demand services.

iPlayer doesn't work outside the UK and other on-demand services are similarly geographically limited

[Ambient Sheep]

Someone has pointed out that the new iPlayer Global will be starting up soon, apparently programmes WILL then be available internationally after payment of a fee, 30% of which goes to everybody's favourite fruit-based computer company.

Coincidental timing, some might say.

[El Unicornio, mang]

Never used it once I got back on thebox, but while I was "banned" from there it was occasionally useful, albeit a bit sparse. I imagine thebox will be getting taken down at some point though, they put up commercially available stuff so would surely be more at risk.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Someone has pointed out that the new iPlayer Global will be starting up soon, apparently programmes WILL then be available internationally after payment of a fee, 30% of which goes to everybody's favourite fruit-based computer company.

Coincidental timing, some might say.

According to a link posted in the other thread, it was Sky who were responsible for getting FACT to act. Which doesn't bode well for thebox as they have a lot of their content on the site, though I've heard they're based in one of those country's which doesn't give a fuck about copyright law, whereas rumour has it that UKN had it's servers in the US of all places.

[Ralph Cifaretto]

RIP uknova. I had a good time there.

Now I'll have to pay for thebox. Whores!

[NoSleep]

Pay in what?

[Entropy Balsmalch]

UK Nova does seem a strange target and hardly the most damaging of these types of sites, but copyright material is copyright regardless of whether or not it's commercially available and so legally they would have a very hard time defending the site.