If you’ve been illegally downloading movies, music, software, e-books, pr0n or anything else from the Internet’s various file sharing cyber-locker services like Megaupload or Filesonic—and you know who you are—then I hope you got your fill, because you can pretty kiss those days goodbye.

After the arrest in New Zealand last week of German-born Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom (AKA Kim Schmitz), several—most—of the file-sharing businesses are opting to close suddenly or greatly modifying their business models. Although Anonymous rallied to defend Kim Dotcom (who’s more than just a bit of a freak) taking down the websites of CBS, Universal Music, the U.S. Department of Justice, RIAA.org, MPAA.org, the U.S. Copyright Office), Hadopi (France’s copyright-enforcement agency), Warner Music Group, BMI and the FBI, over the weekend many—most—of the companies who provide server space for much of the world’s digital piracy have suddenly ceased doing business or are restricting their domains from US visitors. Less cautious companies have merely dropped money-making affiliate programs that encourage top pirates and leave them more open to prosecution:

From Oh No They Didn’t:

What are they closing these programs?

Most filesharing hosts have legalspeak in their Terms of Service that make users/uploaders responsible for all uploaded content, instead of the host itself. The monetary incentives offered to uploaders from affiliate schemes could potentially give them massive legal problems.

Due to the Megaupload case (as well as Hotfile & Rapidshare) it has been shown that these Terms of Service loopholes are not considered valid by the USA / FBI. What the authorities dislike more than rights infringement, is people earning money from rights infringement.

Megaupload is said to have had more than 1 billion visitors, more than 150 million users and 50 million daily visitors. The service was said to account for 4% of Internet traffic alone and Kim Dotcom is apparently worth half a billion dollars.  If they can take down a guy twice as rich as Mitt Romney, they can take down anybody.

SOPA and PIPA might have been DOA, but it’s no surprise whatsoever that the Obama administration has opted to pay its debt to Hollywood by going after the file-sharing services. Of course it was just a matter of time, and that time is now, I suppose. It was inevitable. What IS surprising is that it was allowed to flourish this long!

It will certainly be interesting to see where this goes next.
 

 
Thank you Mr. Steven Daly of New York City, New York!

people sed duh sem zing when napstah was closed bakc in teh dez!

u no wot zey sey abut hydra no?

I don’t see Pirate Bay listed.

i’m sorry. come again?

I don’t see Pirate Bay listed.

All of the private torrent trackers are doing fine.  Smart people still know where to get what they want.

I agree with Rider, and it’s an important point. The Torrents are now distributed and encrypted: No one’s in charge and the files are chopped up in bits so that it’s impossible to determine who shared what with whom (even the participants don’t know what torrents they’ve help share). There’s nothing to shut down.

This means that shutting MegaUpload and the others will only force the sharing deeper into the ‘blacknet’.

What they should have done is see if there was some intelligent way to get MegaUpload on board. Consider that old movies sell for like $5 at Rite Aid, so maybe MegaUpload could have been pursuaded to participate in an intelligent sharing world. Apple has made billions on 99 cent tracks, so maybe something far more interesting could have been worked out.

Ah well. This will just push piracy where no one can get at it.

^^ THIS. (ty EM)

Torrents and IRC are still okay.

“They can’t stop the signal.” - Mr. Universe

over??? not at all, internet changed the fundaments of economy, all that the big corp are doing is clinging to a model thats already obsolete, they cannot control information anymore, this is like trying to make a tree stop growing by cutting a leaf

..Begun the cyber wars has

the u.s. gov says “no sopa and pipa? fuck you, we do what we want”

also:

“is the era of digital piracy over?”

have you been on youtube lately?

And hey Richard…

You been on jury duty or something? Just a couple of posts in the last week or so. Not complaining or anything (Marc and the rest kept on shoveling good posts into our insatiable info-maws), but just wondering.

yeah right, like there aren’t thousands of other file sharing sites still up and running. for every one they close, a couple dozen more pop up

At last!

Pirates, let me use an analogy: Media industry and the law proposals are like a hydra. Cut the head of SOPA, and 3 more heads grow out (NDAA, ACTA, PIPA). Cut off those 3, and you got 9 heads ready to attack. Sooner or later, one of those heads will come from behind while the other heads distract you.

Piracy can’t be stopped? Does ANYBODY actually think so? I never heard anyone claim it was possible, this is another lame pirate one liner.

What I know is, all the big torrent sites will get the megaupload treatment, and if you think all the samll sites will go free, think again. I’m a small fish, but I got over 30 smaller sites and forums my lawyer cant wait to get paid to take down. When they dont take up all my pirate hunting time, I’ll branch out, find the next guys.

Big guys take out the big targets, small guys venture into the corners.

So more precise title: 85% of current pirates will be without access to large libraries. The last 15% that are knowledgeable will still be able to find material, but it will be ever harder and there will be a lot less and you will far more often have to pay. Also remember that the people bringing most pirated stuff to you, the scene, also hates you leeches, and probably welcome the chance to withhold “their” content. (btw, I will laugh extra at comments that only talk about this 1 claim)

“more torrent sites will pop up” Maybe at first, but how many fools are there to make sites and take the fall for you clowns? “RevoTT down and owner in jail facing financial ruin? Nice, my chance to take his place!” I bet you will run out fast!

GOOD!

Not one of you wrote…

“What I know is, all the big torrent sites will get the megaupload treatment, and if you think all the samll sites will go free”

What you know is wrong. Huge amounts of traffic in the form of torrents share files WITHOUT any “site” at all. With many of the torrent networks there is no central server, anyone who participates is a server and a receiver, and of content you cannot determine (because it’s encrypted).

To shut that down they pretty much have to shut down the internet.

Does this mean there’s no way to tame rampant piracy? By no means. But simply sending in the WorldPolice(TM) ain’t gonna do anything but piss a lot of people off and create another set of unenforcable laws that put arbitrary police powers into the hands of nations.

Not one of you…

“Piracy can’t be stopped? Does ANYBODY actually think so?”

You said it yourself, those sites your “lawyer cant wait to get paid to take down”? Your warped for-profit lens that defines your world is why you can never stop piracy.

Your opponents are communities of social disruptors and passionate fan-audiences. While you operate within a brief, theirs is chaotically emergent.

The innate pleasure in story telling, the desire to share common experiences… your enemy is, intrinsically, our human nature.

Came across this list in the TechDirt comments, couldn’t find anything to support it so not sure how true it is, but I’ll pass it on anyway:

MegaUpload - Closed.
Rapidshare - status unknown
FileServe - Closing does not sell premium. File sharing already disabled.
FileJungle - Deleting files. Locked in the U.S..
UploadStation - Locked in the U.S..
FileSonic - the news is arbitrary (under FBI investigation). No longer allows sharing files.
VideoBB - Closed! would disappear soon.
Uploaded - Banned U.S. and the FBI went after the owners who are gone.
FilePost - Deleting all material (will leave executables, pdfs, txts)
Videoz - closed and locked in the countries affiliated with the USA.
4shared - Deleting files with copyright and waits in line at the FBI.
MediaFire - Called to testify in the next 90 days

Can anyone verify any of these? We already know MegaUpload is gone and FileSonic has shutdown ‘sharing’, but a few of the others I’ve gone to look alright…

Your joy about the end of piracy is slightly premature and quite hilarious. Your feds could shut down the US end of 10 sites tomorrow and by the end of the week all their traffic would have gone to similar sites or brand new sites from countries you couldn’t even pronounce. Very arrogant of you for thinking the US is the whole world and the whole internet. I’ve had no problem using a couple of upload sites today, both of them mentioned by you above, but then I don’t live in the US, thankfully.

Oh and I can play online poker for money too if I want, unlike you.

America, land of the free….. erm, yeah ok, if you say so.

Well, you fellas are more reasonable than most of the guys I discuss with, so I’ll try to reciprocate.

Em, you say sites arent needed for torrents. No, they are not. Could 85% of todays pirates find their content without? I say no, which leads to the path to a level of piracy that can be tolerated. One step of many. Remember all those lawsuits in the eighties? No? There werent any. There were posters. Scary posters.

Downloading isn’t stealing, technically. Thats why there arent more lawsuits already. Now they are making the law, finding the term. Now we fight back, first time possible.

Uncle Buck, call me what you want, i want money for my work. If you think EVERYBODY should work for free and give their stuff to whoever needs it? Im in! If its only me that should work for free: Fuck you and your profit lense. (ah, I wanted to be civil, i fail) If my stuff sucks, stay away. If you like, support. If you and yours want free, theres MySpace with tons of music and download.com loaded with software. Enjoy the fruits of artist that agrees with you.

Anon, in theory, you are right, but you would be surprised how many sites rely on American/EU companies for hosting, advertising, affiliate, money transfers etc. Also, all major search engines are in US, so even if the site cant be hit directly, it can be crippled through those.
Also, Im not US, but again, most of the internet is, so doesnt matter. If you are an internet citizen, you are within reach some way or other.

For new sites that will keep popping up? “RevoTT down and owner in jail facing financial ruin? Nice, my chance to take his place!”

...and anon, you know where the megaupload people live, where did they did business. Not USA.

Anon, poker? We have something in common. I played earlier, will again later. Of course real money.

Im not a fat, rich, evil bastard. Im 1 guy making software, no middle men, no vacation for me in over 3 years, living paycheck to paycheck.

Don’t act like the only people you hurt are Universal, Adobe and Madonna. Odds are im broker than you, with a 60 hour work week (thats the good weeks).

Anyway, gl at the tables, and think about paying for what you consume. It isnt an unreasonable request.

Not one of you, we’re not talking about the livelihoods of artists right now.

I’m saying that for all their expensive lawyer-time, commercially-motivated policing can not quell acts of piracy - acts which at their core are not motivated by profit.

Here’s the simple metric: discretionary spending on entertainment makes up a fixed proportion of people’s income. Downloading doesn’t change that amount, but where they spend their money next month might.

Statistically, file-sharing audiences are amongst the entertainment industries biggest customers.

They’re not your problem, strangled Internet distribution is.

Uncle Buck, i call bullshit. You are an opportunist, you want free stuff from the top shelves. The free available material doesn’t quell your thirst? Why? Myspace is full of artists that wants to be heard, rather than paid. Right up your alley. Whats wrong?

“we’re not talking about the livelihoods of artists right now”

We are talking about protecting their right to get paid for their work and decide how it is used. Thats the direct reason for SOPA/PIPA… Id say we are very much talking about the livelihoods of artists, only it makes it impossible for you to use the big evil greedy corporations as your villains. Not as heroic.

“Here’s the simple metric: discretionary spending on entertainment makes up a fixed proportion of people’s income. “

Sounds strange. Where do you get this? How about plagiarism?

Me: “Piracy can’t be stopped? Does ANYBODY actually think so?”
You: “...can not quell acts of piracy…”

Why you keep talking about eliminating it? Its impossible, it’s antiquated thinking. Forget it. I want it decimated and punished in severe cases, readily available material removed. Thats possible. You agree?

You didnt answer my question: Should everybody work for free, or only me?
You insist on making it a question of greed. How do you pay your bills, keep a roof over your head? I hope greed and dirty profit isn’t involved.

“They’re not your problem, strangled Internet distribution is.”

I sell directly to the consumer, do my own customer service and install help. How is that strangled? Are you again thinking Im a huge conglomerate, or do you realize that several of the victims are regular, hard working, low class, broke people like me?

“Myspace is full of artists that wants to be heard, rather than paid. Right up your alley. Whats wrong?”

What’s wrong is that you have a problem with participating in both.

Like I said, fan audiences.

They heard the remix on their Myspace, watched some bootlegged footage on Youtube, bought the single on iTunes, saw their show when they came to town, downloaded the album in FLAC from a music blog, and shared the link with their friends.

“Sounds strange. Where do you get this?”

http://www.ejpd.admin.ch/content/ejpd/de/home/dokumentation/mi/2011/2011-11-30.html

“I want it decimated and punished in severe cases, readily available material removed. Thats possible. You agree?”

No, for the reasons I already gave.

“Should everybody work for free, or only me?”

Work for free? I don’t recommend it.

Create for free?

Maybe like open source software? Or art shared under creative commons? Knock yourself out! There’s a lot of competition out there, maybe it’d be good marketing for you?

So you want music from professionals, not amateurs? And you won’t respect the wishes of the artists that do not want your freeloading interest, where you decide when its reasonble to pay? You wont reward those who never charges, just loves to make music?

Why aren’t you a straight up opportunist? Which of your views collide with this label?

“Work for free? I don’t recommend it. Create for free?”

So I go to other work for 8 hours, then home to make software in versions that will work for all OS, user friendly interface, tested code, then give it away and be ready for install help. Next day, repeat. Sounds like i won’t be putting out a lot of stuff. Sounds like i will be putting out as much as I expect you do.

Link to file, cool! Could you give me name and info so i can search myself? .ch websites makes me uneasy. (i bet you already checked who paid for the survey, how it was carried out, so it isn’t obviously biased)

“No, for the reasons I already gave.”

Your reasons were related to the idea that piracy could be wiped off the net, an idea we dropped. So you think piracy can’t be decimated with SOPA/PIPA… (so you don’t worry at all since the legislation is too weak?) and readily available material can’t be removed, even if it just happened with megaupload and the other sites self-censoring?

I love open source. I participated actively during school years and still got some firefox addons out there, not dead yet. But i dont need a hobby, so no more for me. You tried?

Also:

You insist on making it a question of greed. How do you pay your bills, keep a roof over your head? I hope greed and dirty profit isn’t involved.

“They’re not your problem, strangled Internet distribution is.”

I sell directly to the consumer, do my own customer service and install help. How is that strangled? Are you again thinking Im a huge conglomerate, or do you realize that several of the victims are regular, hard working, low class, broke people like me?

I know there are many questions, but no way you thought this was simple, huh? Please try to include all in next post, and I’ll keep replying.

Nonsense. Greed, victims, wishes of the artists? Those are your hot-button talking points, not mine.

Assalamu alaikum.

the bottom line is that you cant return to pre broadband internet models of creation, distribution and financial compensation without criminalizing many, many people, a majority of them being quite young. well, actually you can do this, and many people, including the u.s. government have no problem at all in doing this, but until EVERYONE comes to terms with the fact that the game has changed radically, and way too quickly, an unwinnable battle will continue to be fought by the copyright holders and their enforcers. please dont confuse this to be a pro ‘pirate’ assessment of the situation, it isnt.

i dont really have any answers, but the current models (creatively and legally) are not working. at all. and heated accusations and labeling (from both sides of the argument) only serve to counter any progress that could be made.

Yay! It’s the end of piracy! Never again will any copyrighted file be shared online! USA! USA!

So Buck, I guess i was right, you are nothing but an opportunist, who till now only debated other opportunists. You want free content despite the wishes of the creators. You don’t wan’t to provide free content yourself.

I’m sad to see you go, but it’s a fine example for others who enters the thread. YOU are the reason this legislation is on the table.

@Ryan. Fair points, but these laws aim for the sites/providers, not the end pirates. They just have to find their wallet next time they download “something they wouldn’t have bought otherwise”, after having checked the reviews and/or trial version/demo.

Yes, a lot of young people are pirating, and for the youngest of you, you have never experienced any other reality than one where digital content is free. I can kinda sympathize with that, and the dinosaurs in the content business are absolutely also to blame here. They were complicit.
Nevertheless, this can’t continue. If you think you will be hurting later, I can promise you I am hurting now, been hurting for years.

Its taken so long, the situation has gotten drastic, so any workable solution has to be drastic. These laws are drastic. Will there be innocent bystanders? There are plenty now, so if the answer is “yes”, its not necessarily a worse situation.

For solutions, i got as few great ideas as you, sadly. If I had some, it wouldn’t matter, since i got no power to carry them out. Now I have to rely on some ol’ school desperate dying bastards to stop the opportunists. Great? no. But i am happy someone is doing something, and rest assured, my side has plenty of cool, smart people as well, so you can have some faith. A bit of faith.

For labeling, could you read the posts again? Do you think I am unfair? Isn’t Buck an archetype opportunist?

Both sides have unreasonable extremists. Buck is one. If you think I am too, i can tell you: IRL, Im known as pro-piracy advocate. First member of musicians union to speak out publicly against the lawsuits against random downloaders. Im not pro-piracy (you know that), but who wants to discuss in the open? The record label extremists, and they need to be countered just as bad as Buck.

This is about finding a balance.

Clearly the problem that Megaupload and these other file-sharing site operators had was arrogance. They thought that they didn’t have to play by the rules.

No, not those rules. Rather the rules that say you need an industry organization that can hire a former senator to front for you. The rules that say you need to spread around some campaign funds to buy some legal exceptions and loopholes. The rules that say you need to open an operation and create some jobs in a key congressional district or two.

If these people had put themselves in a position to push back where it mattered, this whole thing would have been hashed out behind closed doors. The DoJ would not have made a move.

The 1% (hackers) will always be able to steal.
The 99% (average barbie and ken internet user) will stop because it’s just too hard and risky to steal.
Kinda like the physical world.
Party’s over people.

“So you want music from professionals, not amateurs? And you won’t respect the wishes of the artists that do not want your freeloading interest, where you decide when its reasonble to pay?”

Well that’s a point I agree with wholeheartedly, though it’s not an argument that speaks to the methodology.

Actually, with ultra-cheap studio equipment and beat machine apps everyone’s making music but, unfortunately, nobody wants to hear it because it sucks.

The real musicians who study and practice their instruments over the course of decades are pretty much getting squeezed out of recording revenue. Live music pays, but it only seems to pay for the top acts (interestingly, I once heard Gwen Stefani discussing this issue in a restaurant).

As for the Megaupload issue, however, I just don’t think that the WorldPolice model is going to work very well. And yeah, although 85% of people don’t use the torrents, they will move towards doing so when (free) torrent interfaces get even easier to use and when they realize that the best torrents are distributed and encrypted, making it practically impossible to be caught.

<quote>
Due to the Megaupload case (as well as Hotfile & Rapidshare) it has been shown that these Terms of Service loopholes are not considered valid by the USA / FBI. What the authorities dislike more than rights infringement, is people earning money from rights infringement.
</quote>
This has several things I take exception to.
1. Simply because ‘law enforcement’ confiscates / issues take downs / ends service, doesn’t mean it’s illegal.  That’s why there is are courts and a trial process.  Notably, the FBI has been wrong many times about what they are allowed to do.
2. “The authorities” in this case is probably not law enforcement, who most likely have other crimes they would prefer to pursue, but the MPAA and RIAA, spreading money around to our elected representatives, who have duly poked at the FBI to take action.

AnthonyA wrote…

““The authorities” in this case is probably not law enforcement, who most likely have other crimes they would prefer to pursue, but the MPAA and RIAA, spreading money around to our elected representatives, who have duly poked at the FBI to take action”

That’s the real issue here. Actually, it’s a very dangerous confluence of two issues:

1. The US gubmint has in effect become a proxy to big companies
2. Anything resembling due process seems to have been bulldozed here (“if you don’t like it then sue us”).

Isn’t this the very definition of fascism? And it’s got an international face now, too. Dangerous and disgusting.

A good followup:
http://falkvinge.net/2012/01/24/how-filesonic-just-stabbed-us-in-the-back/