As reported in the Guardian, last Thursday a 26-year-old Cheltenham man was arrested and the site, tv-links.co.uk, was closed . According to the Gloucester police, the arrest was carried out for alleged violations of Section 92 of the Trade Marks Act.

The man was not charged and the case remains under investigation, says Eddy Leviten of the Federation Against Copyright Theft. He likened the activity of TV Links to someone who advertises a car that is not theirs. "The main issue is that the original material is stolen," he alleges. TV Links was collecting links to movies such as the new Nancy Drew film that were allegedly illegally recorded in the cinema and then hosted on Chinese websites, he said. The federation is pursuing the websites that host the material, but it is difficult to pursue sites not under English jurisdiction.

The law governing the case is not clear. Section 92 of the Trade Marks Act is frequently used by the federation to pursue illegal CD and DVD copiers, but lawyers said the act relates to goods and has not been applied to audio-visual material that is not on a physical disc or other storage media.

Under US law and the MGM v Grokster case in 2005, the US Supreme Court found Grokster liable for "inducement", encouraging others to infringe copyright. However, English law does not recognise inducement. But this case turns on the issue of linking and the Trade Marks Act. Out-law.com, the blog of international law firm Pinsent Mason says: "It is not clear how the provision of links will be prosecuted as a criminal offence."