Should Linking Be Illegal?

There are several websites out there that do not host content of any kind. They do not own the material, nor do they have it anywhere on their servers on their computer.

Basically these are websites that link you to various websites across the web that have movies, tv shows, music videos, and anime. These sites are also free of charge so you are not paying the website money to get access to these links. They are organized in a nice alphabetical fashion. All you have to do is decide what you want to watch, and see if there is a link for it. If there is, it'll take you to whatever site is actually hosting that content.

Just recently a young man at the age of 26 got arrested in the UK for being the creator to one of these linking websites. I am sure it came to a shock to him too because even in his own disclaimer he states that he does not actually host any of the videos on his own server and is no way committing any acts of piracy, but merely linking to other websites.

So what is the difference between these sites and Torrents?

Link Sites
You do not download them for permanent viewing. It's streaming video that you must re-download each time you view.
You do not download from private parties, but instead from bigger websites that host.
You do not need to download a special application. Anything you need to view would be from normal application like Flash or Divx. It is essentially only a webpage with links.
There is no charge.
The downloads you can choose from are based off what the administrator links, not what other people have to seed.

Torrents
You can download these for permanent viewing onto your computer, re-watch, and even burn the files on a DVD for your DVD player.
You download from other seeders. Sometimes download times will be good or poor depending on how many people are willing to have you share their file.
Often times you will be downloading a special search application. To share files and to download from others you need to be running the special application on your computer.
It is generally free. However, sometimes these torrents will ask you to pay a membership fee for improved download times.
It is filing sharing.

So who do you think the bigger evil is: a link site or a torrent?

Well in my opinion I definitely think it's the torrents. Through torrents people can download cracks, full applications worth up to hundreds of dollars, music, and videos and not have to pay a penny for it. Not only that, but once it's on their computer they can use it just as well as if they would have boughten it at a store. They can distribute to friends, install it on their computer, and no one would ever know.

With these link sites, sure you are watching videos for free but you can't really pop these on a DVD and bring it to your friend's house like a torrent file.

So with that out of the way, here is the other issue:
Should link sites get in trouble, or should the sites they are linking them to get fined?

Websites such as Youtube, Google video, among other sites that have loads of downloadable content. And though they take action to get rid of copyrighted content, the fact is... it's still there. Some people will break down shows into sections so if you're patient and don't mind clicking on the next link for the next part of the show.

These link sites do not actually have content like Youtube and Google do, but instead link to Youtube and Google videos, along with other sites similar.

The site the 26 year old was the administrator of was taken down and now he will be going to trial for it. I think they should have looked at his website and looked at where all these full streaming movie downloads were coming from. Youtube maybe, or others.

Getting arrested for linking a website could open up a whole new concept to what is legal on the internet. Think of all the bloggers out there who perhaps link a movie or a music video. Could someone who writes a blog, saying: "I had a bad day today, and this video relates to my feelings. Here is the link" get arrested?
What about people who write articles and are linking their article to the controversial or illegal site to help readers have a better understanding to their article? Could they get arrested for...linking?

I think the bigger culprit are the websites actually having these videos on their site. But instead of going after the big websites, they go after the little guy.

If linking is seen to be an illegal action, then I hope that they make the law very clear. With people being able to easily make their own websites and links are always part of a website, then anyone may end up having to worry if what they are linking is illegal.

Make the laws clear, and force every single internet service provider or web hosting site put it in big bold letters about the laws of linking before arresting someone for doing it.

I can understand someone getting arrested for content that is in the web site they created... but to simply link to someone else's site and get arrested for it, I find to be a little to extreme.