Who is this?

Technology Editor of Times of London until July 2010. Now swimming in the freelance shark pool, with abiding interest in games, gadgets and what it all means. If you're looking for product reviews, head elsewhere. Unless it's a really nice product. This is more of an attempt to sift out what matters from what doesn't. With a bit of gossip thrown in for good measure. I'm also learning to use Blogger as I go along, so please bear with me.

Friday 9 July 2010

FBI "Untouchables" close down movie streaming sites


In a move that the LA Times has memorably described as a legal version of Whack a Mole, the FBI last week closed down a host of American and Dutch-based sites offering streams or downloads of recent Hollywood movies.

A quick Google search for Free Movie Streaming should produce a top hit for movie-links.tv, whence the above image is taken.

If only it was that simple and definitive. As the LA Times points out, three days after TVshack.net was closed down, up popped TVshack.cc which the Feds have now also closed.

The message coming from the FBI is clear: the gloves are off and we're coming to get you. Unfortunately for them, this is truly a Sisyphean task: no sooner have they closed one site than it re-appears or 20 more take its place.

It's a bit like a 21st-century take on The Untouchables. Except that, if the law were ever relaxed, Eliot Ness's last words would be, "I'm going to go and download me a movie." Probably.

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