No of course it doesn't go by how simple it is... it's all about the purpose of the site. Newzbin was created to allow people to access stuff on usenet, then people put stuff up on usenet which is illegal to use.
TV-links was set up with the intent right from the start.
There are, however, other issues at stake. Whilst it is at the interests of society at large for the entertainment industry to thrive and keep providing us with quality entertainment, the entertainment industry itself as a purely financially driven entity does not care about the content if it does not produce money from it.
Therefore, by removing a portal that also linked to unpopular, esoteric shows that people still found interest, you destroy the opportunity for people to still gain pleasure for something that is unlikely to be promoted because it "isn't in the interests of the business of entertainment".
There is also the concept of heritage. The BBC had to put out a call about 10 years ago to anyone in the UK who had some VHS recordings of about 5-10 Dad's Army episodes that they had lost as part of a fire or flood at BBC headquarters. I believe a couple of those episodes were lost forever. Now, we trust that the BBC is capable of backing up its material, because even if they own the material, it is also part of our heritage too, just as things like art/literature are part of our heritage. It is *extremely* evident that heritage cannot be left in the hands of businesses because they are extremely lazy and uninterested in anything that does not have the potential to make money. Hence why we do *not* have true choice in this country, only the choice to follow the set paths that industry give us.
This is *not* in our best interests. I have paid my TV licence for many years now - but I don't own a television any more, and I am not paying a licence until the system is reformed. All those years, hundreds and hundreds of pounds, and what do we have? A half-hatched BBC iPlayer that plays on one system, hundreds of programs of quality on at random times so our lives rotate around the TV and not vice versa, and no guarantees. No thank you.
I really expect someone like the BBC to be above this sort of thing. Why do I still have to pay full fair for a BBC DVD? The disc costs 30p to make. The content has been broadcast many times before. And yet the DVD costs upwards of £10-£15 PER DISC. I'm sorry, but that is pure corporate greed.
Oh, and in the meantime, I really hope you don't want to catch any of those really old unpopular programs that you used to like growing up on DVD - because unless its profitable, it ain't happening. Welcome to capitalism.
