Megaupload takedown / the real backrounds

[Shepherd_of_Anu]

and I have NO problem what so ever with sites like Megaupload being taken down, since the majority of their business seems to have been based on illegal software/music/movies. And I'm only happy that quite a lot of other sites have decided to stop their business because they are afraid they might be next.

You should be careful what you wish for. With the kinds of laws the music/film industry are trying to get passed a website like this one would be a definite target. There are lots of links of people posting track ids, youtube videos, djing clips and so on. All these things would be an excuse for them to shut down the forum. If the big media companies had their way a lot of our favourite websites would disappear and their operators disappeared into American jails... just like that poor guy from England. I can't believe they extradited him to face trial in the states for that. If I was from the UK I wouldn't have much faith in my government. Its not like he was actually hosting any content... just aggregated links.

As for piracy... I don't think that in the long run anything they do will make a real dent in it worldwide. They may be able to get laws passed in western countries that will put more people in jail but in a lot of countries it will really have no effect. Of course in a lot of those poorer countries the people probably don't have the money to take so the media companies probably won't even bother trying to see things enforced there. And take a place like China for instance. I think they are the worlds biggest pirates of electronic goods and its doubtful if their government will ever do anything about it at all.

So the end result is that for every dollar saved from piracy hundreds if not thousands will be spent on monitoring people, tracking them down, prosecuting them and then sending people to prisons. If the media companies want to foot the bill that would be a different story but I don't see why the taxpayers should have to foot the bill appease the interests of big business.

Even still technology will evolve to get around it. I would imagine some form of anonymized, encrypted network will spring up eventually to enable more pirating. Its almost inevitable. It may already exist but its not the dominant form yet. Its like getting worked up about rain... its gonna happen, just deal with it.

Just wait until they start cracking down on DJs for playing tracks in sets when they didn't have it cleared with the producer. I bet you will just love that.

[fir3]

Just wait until they start cracking down on DJs for playing tracks in sets when they didn't have it cleared with the producer. I bet you will just love that.

Hard to imagine, but not impossible, especially with these sh!t laws just around the corner. It would be a sad day for the whole community, indeed...

Even still technology will evolve to get around it. I would imagine some form of anonymized, encrypted network will spring up eventually to enable more pirating. Its almost inevitable. It may already exist but its not the dominant form yet. Its like getting worked up about rain... its gonna happen, just deal with it.

Here, here! <3 > $ and > $ and this will never change.

[patrick bateman]

Just wait until they start cracking down on DJs for playing tracks in sets when they didn't have it cleared with the producer. I bet you will just love that.

No, of course not.
All I was saying was that I can't see no problems with the takedown of such a big filesharing site as Megaupload. The site was responsible for 4% of the whole internet's traffic and over, was it 50 million users? Being able to share and earn money on the sharing. Come on, do you really endorse that stuff?

[Robot Criminal]

Forbes - is-this-the-real-reason-why-megaupload-was-shut-down
well, it's Forbes.

But I DO NOT think that Kim Dotcom should not get any jail time or whatnot, he has well deserved it. The business model was proper piracy indeed.

Agreed, but at the same time some people make it seem that piracy have no impact at all, and then link to these articles about big companies still making money etc etc.
That just have nothing to do with the underground business who is the one being mostly affected by all of these problems we see, including piracy.

(please note I'm not saying that piracy is the one cause of all problems)

I saw the article as big companies refusing to evolve and losing money because u know... the world has evolved. And small, flexible companies embracing the paradigm shift - making more money.

Again, the system is flawed to begin with (there just wasn't much to do about it in the past). It just can not carry on like this. Not possible.

Nobody Asked For A Refrigerator Fee - this is a nice read and something to think about.

[Shepherd_of_Anu]

Come on, do you really endorse that stuff?

Endorse it? I can't really say that. At the same time I don't get that worked up about it, nor to I use it, but I just can't support anything that makes the internet a less free place. If you give an inch on the issue they will take a mile. If someone chooses to use that kind of service then that is their business. I do not.

As an aside... I have not purchased music from any of the big commercial music companies for 7-8 years now. I refuse to. I do not pirate their products either as I have little desire for their offerings. Someone bought me a cd for xmas and that kind of annoyed me a little but it was a good cd. I rarely buy or go to the movies either but I do get themovienetwork. The cost I pay compared to the number of movies is small enough that I am satisfied they are not making much money off of me. I just will not support these fuckers. It will be a cold day in hell when I finance their MTV cribs and Bentleys. fck them all. How many millions do these people need. The music industry generates a product that is 98% crap and the stuff that is tolerable comes bundled with an album that is full of filler. Its nice that people can buy singles digitally these days though.

Its not like piracy is going away. When I was a kid we used to tape stuff off the radio using cassettes, when we were teenagers we would trade burned CDs, now the people get it from the internet. Even if they shut down all of the channels on the net were someone could download music or movies... well guess what. You can still record it from digital satellite, digital cable and so on. If you are in the media business then you have to realize that people are going to copy your media. (If its worth copying... even then lots of people have bad taste) If people share music between individuals is that something that they should be going after? I think not. Personally I think governments should stay the fck out of people's lives and let them be. I would rather have an internet where people could be free from worry about some company or law enforcement agency coming after them for such things rather then protect corporate profits. Therein lies the great divide in the matter.

Something else to think about. If you take a look at most of your records you will probably find they have a copyright symbol on them and some of mine even go so far as to say that "unauthorized reproduction, public performance, digital uploading and broadcasting is prohibited." Not to mention that in many places the default copyright on works is 'all rights reserved' unless stated otherwise. This means that all DJ who are out there playing vinyl are violating copyright and making money off of it. Do you think media companies should be going after DJs? If not then why the double standard? Same goes for these websites that host DJ sets. That is copyrighted material as well. Perhaps they should be taken down too.

ps. Personally I think that there should be a new kind of copyright that allows for public DJing performances.

Nobody Asked For A Refrigerator Fee - this is a nice read and something to think about.

Good points.

[patrick bateman]

Come on, do you really endorse that stuff?

Endorse it? I can't really say that. At the same time I don't get that worked up about it, nor to I use it, but I just can't support anything that makes the internet a less free place.

You think everything should be allowed on the internet? No matter what, because the internet is a 'free-zone'?

[Shepherd_of_Anu]

Generally speaking, yes. Now, naturally most people who are pro-censorship would bring up the issue of child pornography but in my mind that is a criminal act that involves the abuse of children and a crime that goes well beyond the realms of the internet. Now you may ask what the double standard is between the two but I would have to scoff at the notion that such a crime could be equated with copyright infringement. Beyond that specific circumstance I don't believe in any sort of censorship. I think people should be able to say or post whatever they want, even if it offends people, otherwise you just end up with repressed environment where everyone is tiptoeing around. It would be like working in a office full of politically correct douche bags where you have to watch every word you say or else someone will complain to HR and that's it for you hombre, cause you spoke your mind.

[Themis]

internet shouldnt be a "free zone" where you can do all you want, but its a bit too much to control every step of every internet user only to avoid copyright infringement.

i mean we also dont have cameras everywhere in the street, and in the homes. or on every corner a police man. and those crimes we could avoid with that are way worse than copyright infringement.

think about it.

there has to be another way.

actually its a pretty good thing now, share provider will now check the files they host cause they are responsible.

but this whole ACTA thing and EU data retention projects .... this is bullshit.