14 DAY TRIAL // As the new “Doctor Who” season is gearing up to start soon, one of the oldest fansites has been taken down by the BBC and the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT).
Doctor Who Media is a site that was created back in 2010 and has managed to gather about 25,000 members. The site’s purpose was to provide people with a go-to place to find out the latest news about the universe of “Doctor Who,” included information about the latest episodes and anything else related to the show.
“I had a knock at the door and a couple of guys were there. One from FACT and one from BBCWW [BBC Worldwide]. The FACT guy basically explained what the issue was, said that he was there to give a cease and desist and wanted the domain transferred,” the site’s operator told TorrentFreak.
Basically, the site is getting shut down and the domain name is not going to FACT as per usual, but rather to the BBC since there are trademark issues involved.
Doctor Who Media was a huge part of the operator’s life, he said, but he wasn’t going to let it ruin his life. Therefore, he signed the paperwork and the FACT and BBC guys were on their way.
User details won’t be getting transferred along with the domain, so users can relax about this particular issue. “The site will be backed up a final time and archived in a single offline location, in case anyone wants any forum posts or similar info. I have also refunded the last few donations since they hadn't been used yet,” the site’s operator wrote in a post on the homepage.
It’s rather odd that a fansite was taken down, especially since it hosted no torrent files or anything of the sort, even though “Doctor Who” episodes can be found on just about any torrent site. Even the brand new season that is yet to land on TV screens has been leaked online, with all but the final episode available for pirates.
It seems that BBC hasn’t resumed itself to the “Doctor Who” series, but also to its very popular Top Gear show. More specifically, Final Gear, another fansite was sent a DMCA take-down notice. Alas, in the case of the latter, the thing that annoyed the TV network was the fact that they offered links to download episodes off of torrent sites.