UKNova, the 'ethical' torrent tracking website that has been going for almost a decade, has announced that it will shut down after being targeted by the Federation Against Copyright Theft.
FACT, which recently secured the prosecution of the founder of UK streaming links site SurfTheChannel, has successfully pressured the owners of
UKNova to disable the site's torrent trackers, essentially forcing it to close down.
Founded in 2003, the UKNova BitTorrent tracking site is often used by British ex-pats to access TV shows that they would not normally be able to watch, either due to geographical restrictions or lack of broadcast coverage.
Unlike some torrent sites, the operators of the service have published a set of ethical guidelines that they claim prevent any activity on the service that could eat into the revenue streams of copyright holders.
UKNova operates a "not allowed list" which includes all TV shows that are being exploited commercially, such as on DVD, pay-TV or pay-per-view. This means that users cannot track the content via UKNova.
However, FACT was not convinced by UKNova's ethical credentials and so has issued a "cease and desist" notice, which listed a number of claimants against the site.
A site admin told
Torrent Freak: "There was one very big UK satellite provider, some of whose content (a tiny percentage from their basic package) was available on UKN, there was also a football production company.
"The remaining members represent post-transmission marketing of DVDs etc. The major UK TV companies are not FACT members and were not mentioned."
UKNova did not confirm the identities of the companies, but the "very big UK satellite provider" is thought to be Sky, a FACT member, while the football company is most likely the Premier League.
The site claims that it removed all the alleged offending links to content and informed FACT that it was ready to co-operate.
However, the anti-piracy body responded by saying that all links to content on UKNova are infringing, unless it has "obtained explicit permission from the copyright holder for that content".
Following
the four-year prison sentence handed to SurfTheChannel owner Anton Vickerman this month, UKNova has taken the decision to close down in order to avoid costly legal action.
"The people who run UKNova have families, careers and professional reputations that could be menaced by lengthy legal proceedings, whether successful or not," a statement from the firm said.
"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.
"It is a sad day when a site whose mission has always been to bring much-missed UK TV to ex-pats and Anglophiles at the four corners of the world is forced to stop this activity. Nobody will be plugging a huge revenue hole because we are gone, but tens of thousands of avid viewers will suffer."
FACT has not yet issued a statement on the case.
