AfterDawn: News

UK police take down one of world's largest torrent sites for karaoke files

UK police have taken down 'Karaoke World,' one of the premier torrent sites for those looking to illegally download karaoke tracks.

Additionally, a 46-year-old man was arrested in Dewsbury, suspected of being site admin 'DJ Mikey L.'



Karaoke World had thousands of links to karaoke files, which let downloaders see the lyrics of their favorite tracks on screen while they sing along to the background music with the artist's singing removed. None of the files were hosted on the site directly.

"The unlicensed BitTorrent site directed users to a catalogue of tens of thousands of copyrighted music files, in particular the latest chart music and karaoke hits," the UK's Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) said in a statement.

The URL for the site currently leads nowhere.

Source:
Andy

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 13 Mar 2015 17:13

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• 11 comments

• thehan

  We in Scotland have our own Police,So get your article right.We are not Uk. You must mean England.

  13.3.2015 23:30 #1

• colzy

  Spot on thehan. Scotland & England are seperate
  

  Colin

  14.3.2015 06:49 #2

• lordhook

  Has the law been changed? It was not illegal to have a link on your website only the file itself.
  
  @thehan
  I do agree with your view on UK, We are not really united we even row about football teams in our own countries. However the article dosen't mention Scotland. Dewsbury is in England, unless of course you guys have one as well.
  I am English. Not a real Lord of course. I took that avatar after checking that there is no Lord Hook.
  

  14.3.2015 06:53 #3

• Patty1212

  THAT'S what you people get from this? LOL, must not be a story worth writing. Or maybe none of us are bitorrent fans.
  
  Reminds me of another story: a friend of mine was in an accident where one of her friends was killed. The story was on a local internet website. The comments, there were four, consisted of an argument over whether a Dodge Caravan was an SUV or minivan!

  14.3.2015 11:31 #4

• lordhook

  But no-one has answered my question! How can he get arrested unless we have another Orwellian law?
  

  14.3.2015 11:44 #5

• te45t4

  Originally posted by lordhook: But no-one has answered my question! How can he get arrested unless we have another Orwellian law? Don't believe the government when they say they aren't spying and executing per-emptive thought policing. Most people arrested for doing things on the internet are arrested under the anti terror legislation but 98% end up with being charged with something else or released. You can be arrested on suspicion of your maybe going to commit a crime, welcome to the future
  

  keep it up
  freddy

  14.3.2015 20:30 #6

• lordhook

  Originally posted by te45t4: Originally posted by lordhook: But no-one has answered my question! How can he get arrested unless we have another Orwellian law? Don't believe the government when they say they aren't spying and executing per-emptive thought policing. Most people arrested for doing things on the internet are arrested under the anti terror legislation but 98% end up with being charged with something else or released. You can be arrested on suspicion of your maybe going to commit a crime, welcome to the future Exactly: George Owell's Thought Police in his book "1984".
  

  15.3.2015 04:33 #7

• Dardandec

  Come on ladies and stop bitching, its only karaoke, now I can get peace from my overwhelming neighbours and their screeching pop sounding howling kill the cat music.........lol

  15.3.2015 15:55 #8

• qazwiz

  Originally posted by lordhook: ... I took that avatar after checking that there is no Lord Hook. What? The captain hasn't been gentrified? Arrg!
  
  ;P
  

  qazwiz is qazwiz everywhere. If you see me say HI!

  18.3.2015 00:50 #9

• qazwiz

  while, i'm not an expert on English law this does smack of a bought action via ascap/bmi
  
  further it isnt very logical either
  
  as i read it it appears that the problem isn't that they had links but that they didn't have a license to have the links? (from the PIPCU quote in fourth paragraph)
  
  so with this logic, if here in the USA, in the 1930's, a map maker, lets say Rand McNally for example, had decided to make a road map to every Speakeasy in New York then Ness would have raided the publisher for not getting a license to make a map?
  
  instead they should have used the website to identify the law breakers not arrest the reporter
  
  so does anyone know exactly what license the website needed?
  

  qazwiz is qazwiz everywhere. If you see me say HI!

  18.3.2015 01:08 #10

• mcmenace

  and London police took down a lossless music site.....don't they have anything better tp do like maybe go after terrorists?
  

  18.3.2015 11:33 #11