TIOTI pulls together internet TV download gateway

Filed in archive Internet TV on October 30, 2006

I didn't kill that person, honest. I merely put a loaded gun in the real killer's hand and got him drunk ahead of time!

There I was, trying to finish up work today when all of a sudden a new acronym came out of the blue and hit me square on. TIOTI, which is short for Tape It Off The Internet.

TIOTI is also a new Web site is which aims to become a leading gateway to television shows online. It does this by presenting links to entire seasons of full episodes of hit shows and classic series for download. Most of these links lead to other sites pointing to BitTorrent files that are generally illegal copies.

So, how do the site owners justify this? "We are one step removed," one of the site owners said. "In that sense we are no different from any other search and link site. We think we're going to be OK." Just to be clear, 'one step removed' from being the actual thief.

Does that sound good enough for you? It sounds to me like they could be the next YouTube but without all those nettlesome home videos. In fact, they even have the lingo down pat saying that they will provide a takedown mechanism to enable copyright holders to request the removal of infringing material.

Let's review. Social network with ratings and recommendations? Check. Index of available shows? Check. Digital Millennium Copyright Act platitudes? Check. OK, I think we are set to go.

So, I felt compelled to search for more. The eagle eyed reporters at Informitv.com had this to add:

The Web site is the result of collaboration between Paul Cleghorn, a web designer in London, and Marc Colando, based in Seattle. It has apparently been put together with very little budget, using a team of developers in the Ukraine.

Paul came up with the idea as a result of his frustration in waiting for the final series of The West Wing to be screened in the UK. He turned to the internet to download episodes but found it difficult to keep track of where they could be found.

The site itself is slickly designed and packed with web 2.0 technologies and approaches, putting many commercial portals to shame. It is currently being used by an invited group of beta testers, with a view to launching to the public in the coming weeks.