World's Best Place To Watch Top Gear Episodes Taken Down By Lawyers

If you live in a country where Top Gear isn't broadcast live on BBC 2, there's a good chance you've visited Final Gear to nab a download of the latest episode. Well, not anymore. The DMCA just made them take down all their links. This is not great news.

Final Gear has long been a bastion for the Top Gear enthusiast locked in a world without first run Top Gear episodes. Or the best place for a Top Gear completist that just needs to have every episode to find that one missing one. They only linked to torrent sites, they say, and didn't actually host any torrents. But that hasn't stopped the DMCA from issuing a very stern take down request that Final Gear has immediately complied with:

Demand for Immediate Take-Down: Notice of Infringing
Activity

Url: http://www.finalgear.com
Date: 03/07/14

Dear Sir / Madam,

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.

Identification of copyrighted works:

Copyrighted work(s):
Top Gear
Top Gear Australia
Top Gear America

Copyrighted owner(s):
BBC Worldwide Consumer Products

Statement of authority:

The information contained within this notice is accurate,
and I hereby certify under penalty of perjury that I am
authorized to act on behalf of BBC Worldwide Consumer
Products, the owner of the copyright(s) in the work(s)
identified above.

I have a good faith belief that none of the materials or
activities listed above have been authorized by BBC
Worldwide Consumer Products, its agents or the law.

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 appreciate your cooperation in this matter.

Yours Sincerely,
Peter O Rourke

Director Of Intelligence & Investigations Federation
Against Copyright Theft copyright@fact-uk.org.uk

T: +44 (0)20 8891 1217
F: +44 (0)20 8892 7845

For and on behalf of:-
BBC Worldwide Consumer Products
33 Foley Street
London
W1W 7TL
United Kingdom

This shouldn't be surprising. Honestly, with how long Final Gear has been around and how long the brass at Top Gear have known about it (I remember Jeremy mentioning the site during a few episodes), it's amazing it took this long for a crackdown to come.

It's still a sad development for the Top Gear fan, but it isn't the end of the world. The links may be gone from Final Gear, but the links still exist and there are also plenty of other places to watch old Top Gear episodes now.