BBC and FACT Shut Down Doctor Who Fansite

An anonymous reader writes with this report from Torrentfreak, excerpting: In just a few hours time the brand new season of Doctor Who will premiere, kicking off with the first episode 'Deep Breath'. There's been a huge build up in the media, but for fans who prefer to socialize and obtain news via a dedicated community, today brings bad news. Doctor Who Media (DWM) was a site created in 2010 and during the ensuing four and a half years it amassed around 25,000 dedicated members. A source close to the site told TF that since nothing like it existed officially, DWM's core focus was to provide a central location and community for everything in the 'Whoniverse,' from reconstructions of missing episodes to the latest episodes, and whatever lay between. But yesterday, following a visit by representatives from the BBC and Federation Against Copyright Theft, the site's operator took the decision to shut down the site for good.

Comments

Anyone know what, exactly, was the issue?

[Zocalo]

FACT was involved, so my first guess was that they were hosting full episodes, or perhaps links to torrents, but according to TFA DWM had refused to carry any of the leaked episodes from the new series which seems unlikely for a site turning a blind eye to copyright, yet further up is the following quote: "Often times, having watched stuff there led to me purchasing the exact same content on iTunes as well as all the various other content available for Doctor Who", which implies they were hosting episodes, or at least extensive clips.

So, is this a case of major fansite being shutdown for using a more copyrighted material than the BBC was prepared to stomach (in which case where was the friendly letter asking them to "tone it down a bit, please"), a copyright infringement portal being shuttered for hosting/linking to aired episodes and other content, some kind of trademark issue, or just a domain grab by the BBC ("doctorwhomedia.co.uk" is a fairly nice domain name, afterall)?

Re:Anyone know what, exactly, was the issue?

[Anonymous Coward]

Thank you for giving more information.

Hey Slashdot Editors and posters. Information like this would have been nice to know in the summary. Otherwise it make it sounds like a fan site was shut down for having information about a show.

Get your fucking act together and stop trying to feed into FUD.

Re:Anyone know what, exactly, was the issue?

[91degrees]

No. It doesn't work like that.

The BBC itself is publicly owned, so in that sense, it is public property, but we don't have the right to individual assets any more than a shareholder in Sony can start making copies of Spiderman DVDs.

Also it's paid for by a licence fee rather than taxes. You can call them taxes if you like, but it doesn't go into or come out of central taxation.

Re:Anyone know what, exactly, was the issue?

[BasilBrush]

I am a little confused; Isn't all material on the BBC public property in Britain since it's paid for with taxes?

That's an American law. There's no such equivalent in the UK, nor I imagine in most of the rest of the world.

This copywrite shit is getting pathetic

[malacandrian]

Now you can't even organize a group to talk about something that interests you, if you dont own the rights to the topic of discussion!?

From the summary:

DWM's core focus was to provide a central location and community for everything in the 'Whoniverse,' from reconstructions of missing episodes to the latest episodes, and whatever lay between.

The purpose of the site was not to let fans discuss their favourite episodes, it was to store and distribute copyrighted material without licence. This is precisely what copyright laws were designed to tackle. This isn't news, this isn't relevant to any serious discussion about copyright reform, this is the system working as intended.

Re:This copywrite shit is getting pathetic

[Anonymous Coward]

How would one reconstruct missing episodes without storing and distributing video of those missing episodes?

Re:This copywrite shit is getting pathetic

[Anonymous Coward]

If they're 'missing' it implies the "video" (actually it would be film) isn't available.

Re:Your Official guide to the Jigaboo presidency!

[MightyMartian]

Reading at -1 is like having your soul sucked out and replaced by liquid nitrogen.

Re:This copywrite shit is getting pathetic

[geminidomino]

The methods I've seen have been mostly "slideshows" with audio tracks, and very rarely, someone recreating the video in an animated form.