FinalGear.com is the go to place on the internet for news on motoring shows Top Gear and Fifth Gear. That also means it has been a reliable source of information for viewers outside of the UK who want to watch new episodes as soon as possible after going to air. That information, of course, relates to illegal downloads.
FinalGear states that it “does not host any torrents or copyright infringing material” but it does provide links relating to such activities. Today, the website was issued a take-down notice from the UK’s Director Of Intelligence & Investigations Federation Against Copyright Theft which states in part:
BBC Worldwide Consumer Products, Soda Pictures has received information that the domain listed above, which appears to be on servers under your control, is offering unlicensed copies of, or is engaged in other unauthorized activities relating to copyrighted works owned by BBC Worldwide Consumer Products.
Further, the notice demands that any relevant links be removed:
We hereby give notice of these activities to you and request that you take expeditious action to remove or disable access to the material described above, and thereby prevent the unauthorized distribution of the work(s) via your companys network.
We expect the website, in particular its forums, will remain active. It’s just that people wanting to get their hands on the latest episodes of Top Gear might have to look elsewhere. Although, perhaps sufficient action is also being taken against whoever does host episodes for download in future that only officially sourced content may be available. If it’s actually possible to achieve such an aim.
[Source: FinalGear]