P2P Crackdown?
So Friday was tv-links.co.uk being shut down (Jack Schofield‘s and the Open Right Group comments), now today I find out about Oink, which was the first I’d heard about that site (Points West Look North report on YouTube (via:waxy) and DJ Rupture comments (also via:waxy)).
Both were international operations with people in a number of countries arrested and high profile, I mean get a TV news crew to come along to your bust is making a point, are they the first in a new waves of takedowns for P2P sites?
For me tvlinks fulfilled more of the promise of the iplayer from when I first heard about it, than the current version on the BBC (which I heard has so far cost £130 million , but I can’t trackdown the link right now, 2007-10-24: found the link now). All sort of programmes, in a simple to find layout, in a ok quality. Great if you missed a episode or even half a series, so you can catch up at your own pace.
Other sites take this to the next level adding extra meta data like cast listing, links the DVD releases , links to fansites, Trailers, talkboards and all for much less than £130 million. The BBC has built some of this meta data already, I just hope that the current iPlayer can evolve into what it should have been in the first place.
As for OiNK, I never even been to the site but from what I have read today, it does sound like it had a large number real music fans much like Audiogalaxy, lots of stories of people discovering many many new groups via the site.
Anyway it will be interesting to see how this all plays out.