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View Full Version : Megaupload Shut Down



forrestcupp
January 20th, 2012, 01:47 PM
All you bad people who want to watch pirated movies and TV shows are going to have to find another place now. Megaupload has been shut down by the FBI. (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/21/technology/7-charged-as-fbi-closes-a-top-file-sharing-site.html?_r=1) 7 people were arrested and 4 of them were founders. I just tried to go to their web site, and it didn't load.

I just read that Anonymous is retaliating.

3Miro
January 20th, 2012, 03:34 PM
All you bad people who want to watch pirated movies and TV shows are going to have to find another place now. Megaupload has been shut down by the FBI. (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/21/technology/7-charged-as-fbi-closes-a-top-file-sharing-site.html?_r=1) 7 people were arrested and 4 of them were founders. I just tried to go to their web site, and it didn't load.

I just read that Anonymous is retaliating.

You do know that Megauploads is just one of 10 - 20 such places that already exist. Even SOPA (if it is to passed) wouldn't stopped "piracy", it would just hurt legitimate business. I used Megauploads to distribute a mod for Civilization IV that I was making, it was perfectly legitimate and now I will just have to use Filefront or Rapidshare or some of the other places.

Am I affected by this, yes a little. Would pirates be affected, not at all. Same with SOPA, it would hurt legitimate companies big time and it will not make a dent into piracy.

Grenage
January 20th, 2012, 03:56 PM
I once saw a bad driver hit a pedestrian; we should ban cars.

Paqman
January 20th, 2012, 05:03 PM
To be fair, there was a lot of dodgy content on the site. However, if this sets a precedent it means that it'll no longer be feasible to run a site where users can upload any content, and simply rely on the T&C's to be covered. Site owners would have to start actively inspecting everything that's uploaded, which is a bad idea for a whole bunch of reasons.

However, I think we all agree that T&C's won't ever actually stop people uploading iffy content to these sites, so perhaps we have to accept that the current model isn't working.

TheNerdAL
January 20th, 2012, 05:37 PM
Just use their IP instead. They'll be back, but you'll have to use the IP. I'd give it to you, but I think that's against the rules.

Bölvağur
January 20th, 2012, 05:53 PM
Thankfully I will still be able to upload my own avatar for the ubuntuforums.org even though I cannot post a link on the forums to my scripts and backgrounds through dropbox... until dropbox moves it's servers to any other country.

cbanakis
January 20th, 2012, 06:04 PM
Yeah, Mega Uploads only purpose was to allow people to send files that were too large for email.

Just like sendspace, or yousendit.

I work at a printing company, and design files can get very large. (Especially booklet designs)

Our customers use megaupload, sendspace, etc to send us files all day long.

I'm sure there was pirated software/media on megaupload, but megaupload's staff didn't put it there, and it probably only made up like 5% of their traffic.

All they did was put a bunch of people out of work, and take away a company that provides a useful, legitimate, service.

A lot of people are defending SOPA out of ignorance.
People seem to think the only reason why people are fighting it, is because they want to pirate stuff.

When in actuality, people are against SOPA, because it will give the US Government a foothold on the internet, which could easily grow from SOPA into outright censorship. Which could potentially turn the US into a China of sorts.

I'm not saying any of this will happen, but it is more than plausible.

I just think the MPAA and others should let bygones be bygones.

They probably spend more money fighting/preventing piracy than they lose to piracy.
Not to mention the society they are consistently hurting with their crusade.

I believe they are misguided, in the sense that they look at stuff in the worst case scenario.

They see that a movie was downloaded 1,000 times, that has a retail of $20.00 per copy.
And they assume that all 1,000 people would have bought the movie if not for piracy.
Leading them to believe they just lost $20,000.00.

When in actuality, many people already bought the movie, and just want a more versatile copy (for htpc's, ipods, etc), and many other people simply would not watch the movie if they had to pay.

Obviously the MPAA is a victim, and they definitely lose money to piracy, but I doubt its enough to justify their crusade.

It will be a sad day for the MPAA when they somehow eliminate piracy, only to find that after billions of dollars spent winning the war on piracy, they only see a 4% boost in profits.

Thats what we call a lose, lose scenario.

Thats enough ranting from me.

For now...

CharlesA
January 20th, 2012, 06:04 PM
Thankfully I will still be able to upload my own avatar for the ubuntuforums.org even though I cannot post a link on the forums to my scripts and backgrounds through dropbox... until dropbox moves it's servers to any other country.

Why is that? I have the scripts I have posted on my website.

satanselbow
January 20th, 2012, 06:25 PM
When in actuality, many people already bought the movie, and just want a more versatile copy (for htpc's, ipods, etc), and many other people simply would not watch the movie if they had to pay.


And how many of the big block buster movies in the - say last 10 years (which are surely most likely to be pirated?) - actually made a loss?

Avatar maybe... that amount of blue must have been very costly...

The music/movie industries continue to fight against the very digital revolution that guarantees it's continued success...

There's an interesting investigation into the costs involved here: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/09/music-piracy-costs-money-does-fighting-it-cost-more.ars

Grenage
January 20th, 2012, 06:27 PM
Profits are a moot point; if this thread turns into another "it's ok because they still made money" vs "piracy sends you to hell", it'll only get locked.

3Miro
January 20th, 2012, 06:29 PM
When in actuality, people are against SOPA, because it will give the US Government a foothold on the internet, which could easily grow from SOPA into outright censorship. Which could potentially turn the US into a China of sorts.


It is actually worse than that. SOPA would allow even private companies to close down sites like Google.com, and I for one think that is even worse.

In the end, the truth is that SOPA cannot win, they cannot stop piracy. In fact, the more restrictive they get, the more incentive they give for people to pirate. There is a number of game that would run perfect under wine if it wasn't for the DRM. Hence the only way for me to play the game under wine is to get the legitimate copy and then crack it.

TheNerdAL
January 20th, 2012, 06:29 PM
I think Piracy will never stop and will not make things worse. Remember when the VHS first came out? They thought it would make them lose money, but it never did. Same thing with when MP3 players came out.

Same thing is happening now.

Avatar for example was one of the most torrented film. But it did well in box office and made over 2 Billion dollars in profit.

KiwiNZ
January 20th, 2012, 06:33 PM
We neither promote or support piracy on these Forums. The politics relating to this is also prohibited.

Thread closed.

lisati
January 20th, 2012, 06:36 PM
We neither promote or support piracy on these Forums. The politics relating to this is also prohibited.

Thread closed.
+1

My $0.02: True freedom recognizes its responsibility to self and others.