aimeeandbeatles
watermelon
- Joined
- Apr 5, 2007
- Messages
- 20,082
I hope they get some really good lawyers.
Megaupload closed down by the Feds.
- Thread starter Skwink
- Start date
It's impossible to stop piracy. The internet is inherently uber-decentralized.
Even if you had SOPA regulations to stop google from linking to piratebay, or even if you made piratebay unacceptable from the US, pirating wouldn't stop. I imagine you'd just focus a lot of traffic into darkweb services like Tor / .onion which would be basically unstoppable. It'd also heighten awareness among less web-savey people that there's a lot of child porn to be found there and it cannot easily be traced.
So is drug-dealing, theft, murder etc etc. Our society is inherently decentralised when it comes to crime because of the vast number of individuals - the internet is no more decentralised than society in general. But while no crime can be stopped, we expect the authorities to find criminals and prosecute them, in order to control crime within limits. If the problem is serious, we should start making serious examples out of offenders.
Virote_Considon
The Great Dictator
If big companies weren't throwing all their toxic wastes into our Internet's waters and illegally depleting our fish stocks, maybe online piracy wouldn't happen.
No, it just means the whole endeavour is pointless, if not counterproductive, to the IP owner's goals.
But more to the point, the idea of shutting down a website is about showmanship. It's like when Customs displays 20 kilos of cocaine they seized and talking about the war on drugs. It's a photo op, not an indication of any progress being made on the "war on drugs" -- or in this case the "war on piracy"
So charge them. Try them. I'm sure they'll be found guilty because they engaged in profiteering from piracy. But don't pretend for a moment their trial has anything to do with stopping piracy itself.
GoodGame
Red, White, & Blue, baby!
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2004
- Messages
- 13,725
no comment.
Piracy is a pretty serious issue, especially if the dollar cost is high enough that the Fed needs to shut it down. I hate IP pirates, personally. I don't buy the "crappy attitude towards consumers = piracy is fair" justification that people use. Boycott companies if they provide inadequate products, but don't steal.
SG-17
Deity
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2006
- Messages
- 2,631
Taking down all of Megaupload because one could find pirated files there is like closing down all of Manhattan because you can find illegal drugs there.
Virote_Considon
The Great Dictator
On the other hand, companies could provide better services to stop piracy
You...
... You actually...
Oh, man
A closer comparison might be shutting down a Walmart if you knew they were not doing much to stop illegal drugs from being sold openly all over the store.
Kozmos
Jew Detective
It is like upturning all the storage areas because one contained illegal materials and then charging the owner of the property instead of whoever rented it.
GoodGame
Red, White, & Blue, baby!
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2004
- Messages
- 13,725
Basically it's like they did one big giant dragnet raid of Manhattan. Unfortunately it might take a while to sort out the evidence.
I remember how Steve Jackson Games was actually victimized by it. Their role-playing game about cyberpunk material upset the Fed (someone somehow felt the game/website had live hacking manuals or something in it). It took a couple of years before Steve Jackson Games got their computers back.
http://www.sjgames.com/SS/
amadeus
Serenity now
Well, I'm sure they had good reasons to...
aimeeandbeatles
watermelon
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- Apr 5, 2007
- Messages
- 20,082
They did it because the MPAA asked them to, apparently.
I can see that going over well if it wasnt some big suit-money guy. "Hey, feds, will you arrest this guy? I think he has a bunch of stolen bicycles in the storage unit place he rents to others. I don't have any solid evidence that there are a lot of stolen bikes, but I'm losing a lot of money."
It's pretty easy to recognize torrent traffic and cripple the speeds, even running over encrypted VPNs.
Cutting down US-wide torrent speeds to 5kb/s per person would reduce piracy by quite a bit.
This is a better comparison. Nonetheless, if every other unit at the storage facility had illegal materials in it, it certainly warrants doing something serious about it. I don't know enough to talk about penalties, but I can't say some sort of action seems unwarranted.
You...
... You actually...
Oh, man
I'm not joking
Most of the ppl are not good guy gregs to stop stealing if the service is below average or the price is ridiculously high. You can either combat against piracy with pathetic laws like SOPA and PIPA or you can just optimize your services.
Just to be clear: I'm not on a morale high ground, downloading is hurting the companies and the market. But nothing will change if the market doesn't adjust
And on the other hand, could you tell me what was the point in closing megaupload?
( PS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHL912jlyE0&feature=player_embedded )
ParkCungHee
Deity
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2006
- Messages
- 12,921
If Megaupload was trying to profiteer off of pirating, they did a pretty lousy job of it. Some files had trouble staying up for a few hours.
