What if the website itself doesn't do web-torrenting—in fact, it doesn't even make the magnet links links, instead just showing raw magnet hashes as text—but there also happens to be a well-known "unaffiliated" browser extension that does "gradual enhancement" of any site using the magnet-hash text "microformat", into a web-torrent download button?
The site doesn't link to copyrighted content. It doesn't link to anything, in fact.
And the extension doesn't contain any references to copyrighted content. It contains no content, and is completely unaware of any sources of content. (No explicit whitelist patterns for sites it should run on, etc.)
And—at least as far as anyone can tell—the two things have different authors.
But put them together, and oops! You've got a piracy program! User's fault for putting them together, of course.
Hashes whether linked or not are still gateways to copyright content.
What you're describing is not that different Google in some ways. ISOHunt tried to make the Google argument about just being a search engine... but the distinction is that your visitors come specifically for torrents (mostly of a copyright nature) and your index provides copyright content. Google on the other hand is a general purpose search engine where copyright infringement make up a small percentage of their search. Your site would have to be a general search engine site to have any compelling legal argument.
You define technical subtleties, but again the intent remains the same: sharing content without asking the relevant rights holders for authorization. You will still provide a search box to the user, where they will enter the title of the latest episode of the series they want to watch, and you're going to give them the relevant infohashes. You're trying to obfuscate but we all know what your end goal is.
The site doesn't link to copyrighted content. It doesn't link to anything, in fact.
And the extension doesn't contain any references to copyrighted content. It contains no content, and is completely unaware of any sources of content. (No explicit whitelist patterns for sites it should run on, etc.)
And—at least as far as anyone can tell—the two things have different authors.
But put them together, and oops! You've got a piracy program! User's fault for putting them together, of course.