Glossary
What Is Link Aggregator?
A link aggregator organises links to copies stored on cyberlockers, stream hosts and torrent indexes into a browsable catalogue, while usually hosting none of the files itself.
Definition
A link aggregator collects and organises links to material hosted on other websites or storage services, usually without storing the files itself.
A catalogue that hosts nothing
A link aggregator is a website, app or channel that collects links to content stored elsewhere and organises them into something easy to browse. A pirate aggregator might have a page for every film or episode, complete with poster art, a synopsis and a list of links to copies on cyberlockers, streaming hosts or torrent indexes. The aggregator itself usually stores none of the files.
Aggregation is a normal web activity. News readers, deal sites and search engines all aggregate links. It becomes a piracy issue when the catalogue exists to point users to unauthorised copies.
How aggregators turn scattered uploads into a service
On its own, an upload on a cyberlocker is hard to find. Aggregators fix that. They index uploads from many hosts, check which links still work, and swap in replacements when one dies. Many embed a player from a third-party host so the user never leaves the page. Others group several copies under one title so that removing any single file barely registers. In live sport, aggregators publish stream links for each match shortly before kick-off and refresh them as streams drop.
The business runs on advertising, pop-ups and sometimes affiliate deals. Traffic, much of it from search engines and social media, is what keeps it alive.
Aggregator versus host
This distinction drives enforcement. The host stores the copy and can remove it. The aggregator points to it and can remove the link. Both are worth acting on, but they are different notices to different parties, and the law treats linking and hosting differently from one country to another.
Removing only links leaves the copy in place for the next aggregator to find. Removing only the copy leaves a page that will soon carry a fresh link to a new upload.
Getting results against a site that only links
A workable approach pairs the two layers. Notices to the aggregator, its hosting and its infrastructure providers remove pages and links. Notices to the underlying cyberlockers and stream hosts remove the files themselves. Delisting requests to search engines cut the aggregator's main source of new visitors.
Evidence should capture the aggregator page, every link it offers for the title, and what each link actually resolves to, since an embedded player can hide the real host behind several redirects. The balance between these approaches is discussed in source takedown versus link removal.
- Piracy
- Glossary
- Content protection
