14 DAY TRIAL // Copyright extremists would have you believe that any unauthorized copying is illegal or at least immoral. But can there be such a thing as "ethical" file sharing?
Ethical here doesn't mean that sharing a file will save children, it means that sharing that file, a song, a TV episode, etc., would not harm its creators financially.
UKNova was built on that principle. In the BitTorrent world, UKNova occupies, or rather occupied, a special role. For one, it only carried UK shows, as the name implies.
Second, it only listed shows that were unavailable in any other way, meaning they were not out on DVD or pay-per-view and so on.
It was a strict policy and content that didn't fit in was not allowed. What's more, when the DVD for something became available, the show would be removed.
The idea was to make it possible for expats or anyone who loves English TV to watch it when they had no alternatives.
This lasted for about a decade, but not anymore, the site is shutting down. FACT, The Federation Against Copyright Theft, the agency responsible for taking down SurfTheChannel can boast about another victory.
"UKNova is being forced to change. We have been issued with a 'cease and desist' order by FACT," an announcement sent to the users wrote.
"We therefore currently have no other choice and will be closing the trackers. It has not been an easy decision to take, but it is apparently our only option," it said.
"The forums will remain open for business as usual. Torrents and their associated pages will disappear over the next few hours," it added.
UKNova was one of the few file sharing sites that actually wanted to protect content creators. It removed any file it received a complaint about and worked out any of the few disputes with copyright owners.
Not this time, it seems that the Premier League and BSkyB had problems with some of the content on the site. UKNova agreed to delete all of the content, but it wasn't enough, FACT, acting on behalf of the two companies wanted the site gone.
The site's owners did not want to risk a lawsuit, especially when link site operators can get four years of prison, as was the case with SurfTheChannel.