Megaupload Taken Down

[menotu]

By Jeremy Kirk - February 6, 2012 (computerworld)

BTJunkie voluntarily closes file-sharing website

BTJunkie's move comes after a massive law enforcement action shut down MegaUpload

The BitTorrent search engine BTJunkie has shut down its website, the latest file-sharing site to take defensive action following law enforcement's shutdown of MegaUpload last month.

BTJunkie said the move was voluntary. "We've been fighting for years for your right to communicate, but it's time to move on. It's been an experience of a lifetime, we wish you all the best!"

The website, which started in 2005, was ranked by the file-sharing blog TorrentFreak fifth in a top 10 list of the most popular BitTorrent sites for 2011 based on traffic statistics collected by Alexa and Compete, both Web metrics analysis companies. A "torrent" is a small file that enables files to be shared on a peer-to-peer network using the BitTorrent protocol.

The decision by BTJunkie to shut down is perhaps one of the most drastic steps taken by a file-sharing site to avoid legal trouble. Other popular sites have also implemented changes to lower their profile.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9223989/BTJunkie_voluntarily_closes_file_sharing_website?source=rss_security&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+computerworld%2Fs%2Ffeed%2Ftopic%2F17+%28Computerworld+Security+News%29

[George Underwood Edwards]

WOW!!! 
One by one they're starting to fall...

[Abraxas]

It is an interesting time to be alive, in so many ways. I'm wondering what people will do when file sharing, Torrents, illegal downloads are no longer a part of the Net ?
I guess back to the Video store and either hire, or buy DVD's. I love buying a DVD, never really understood why people encoded, uploaded a DVD for others to download. A lot of work for not much reward ?

My Mum who is 80 has friends who illegally download a movie to watch of a Friday night.
They love it, and openly admit to doing so.
I told my Mum, it's illegal, don't you do that will you, you're too old to go to jail  

There will be quite a cultural change for so many people who turned a blind eye to illegal ( "but it's what everyone does...") downloads.

[DeBaas]

Skydrive and Dropbox also in danger ?
Those are also file share sites................

[arkanabar]

The goal of SOPA/PIPA is not to stop piracy.

It is nothing less than to put an end to user-generated content on the Web.

To repeat, the goal of MPAA/RIAA in passing SOPA/PIPA is to put an end to user-generated content on the Web.  They want to eliminate every form of competition.  They want to ensure that all independent entertainers are crushed, so that everyone who wants any sort of entertainment will have to come to them, cash in hand.  They want to ensure that every performing artist will have to come to them, cap in hand, in order to make the move from streetcorner busker/ garage band/ small local club band to the big time, and sign away all of their rights and money.

BTJunkie's self-takedown is not ONLY stifling piracy, is not ONLY stifling Linux ISO distribution ... I have no doubt that it is also stifling the efforts of many independent artists, without distribution contracts, to get some market share and mind share.

That's the real goal of MPAA and RIAA in all their DRM and anti-censorship moves -- to ensure they have a monopoly on distribution of entertainment media worldwide.

[Abraxas]

That' s a good take on it arkanabar.

Too many people aren't working for the'Man'. He's angry, ...

[menotu]

By Stephen Bell - 8 Feb 2012 ( Computerworld New Zealand )

Megaupload interest a mixed blessing for Pirate Party

We are not the new Greens, say party officials

The Pirate Party of New Zealand (PPNZ) says it is wary that the Megaupload controversy might generate superficial interest in the party's policies and attract approaches from insufficiently committed new members.

"Incidents like these only become useful if we can spread our underlying message of the current state of the workings of government and the internet on a holistic level," PPNZ says an emailed reply to Computerworld questions, jointly written by party president Tommy Fergusson and secretary Mark Brown.

PPNZ has commented that New Zealand law and the rights of New Zealand citizens should have been given more attention before the go-ahead was given for US authorities to launch a police raid on Megaupload staff in this country.

Computerworld asked whether the affair had generated extra interest in the small party.

Incidents such as the Megaupload raids are "slowly bringing us in more members," PPNZ replies, but this may not bring the deeper commitment that will be to its lasting benefit.

.................................

A recent Sunday Star-Times article said the Pirate Party's European divisions could be regarded as "the new Greens" -- having taken over the mantle of a courageous unconventional take on controversial issues from a Green Party that has drifted towards the more conventional thinking that comes with big-party political alliances. Fergusson and Brown say the PPNZ does not see itself in this light. "In Europe, that's probably quite an insightful observation, but the context isn't quite the same in NZ."

computerworld

[djohnston]

The goal of SOPA/PIPA is not to stop piracy.

It is nothing less than to put an end to user-generated content on the Web.

To repeat, the goal of MPAA/RIAA in passing SOPA/PIPA is to put an end to user-generated content on the Web.  They want to eliminate every form of competition.

Exactly. Well put.

[Just18]

I wish I could believe it is just a few corporations behind all that is happening .....  but i don't.
Yes the entertainment industry has a lot to gain and so will fund a lot of what is going on ......  but their goals could be reached a lot easier by other means than what is presently being touted around the world in various countries.

They seem more like a 'willing participant' than the real leaders .......  which is rather depressing ......

[djohnston]

I wish I could believe it is just a few corporations behind all that is happening .....  but i don't.

They seem more like a 'willing participant' than the real leaders .......  which is rather depressing ......

I have a different opinion. I believe the politicians are the willing participants, as a result of "campaign contributions", as well as other stipends. It's the corporations who are running the show.

[pags]

I wish I could believe it is just a few corporations behind all that is happening .....  but i don't.

They seem more like a 'willing participant' than the real leaders .......  which is rather depressing ......

I have a different opinion. I believe the politicians are the willing participants, as a result of "campaign contributions", as well as other stipends. It's the corporations who are running the show.

I'm not sure Just18 was implying it was a politics over corporation issue.  My take on it was that there is another (or, group of) undisclosed party (parties), exercising a (possibly) unknown agenda.\
Very Illuminati-esque (sp?).

[djohnston]

I'm not sure Just18 was implying it was a politics over corporation issue.  My take on it was that there is another (or, group of) undisclosed party (parties), exercising a (possibly) unknown agenda.\
Very Illuminati-esque (sp?).

Ah so, said the blind man. I see now.

[arkanabar]

something I added when I posted this to my blog:

And this plays into the hands of a censorious government. Never forget that big government and big business are in bed together and feed each other. Big business wants an unfair advantage. Big government wants to control personal expression. An oppressive government cannot afford free expression; it's far too likely to express, in a way that people can easily see and share, that the government is oppressive and corrupt.

[Just18]

I wish I could believe it is just a few corporations behind all that is happening .....  but i don't.

They seem more like a 'willing participant' than the real leaders .......  which is rather depressing ......

I have a different opinion. I believe the politicians are the willing participants, as a result of "campaign contributions", as well as other stipends. It's the corporations who are running the show.

I'm not sure Just18 was implying it was a politics over corporation issue.  My take on it was that there is another (or, group of) undisclosed party (parties), exercising a (possibly) unknown agenda.\
Very Illuminati-esque (sp?).

Well I hope I didn't quite say ......  but, considering there is a concerted effort, on many different fronts, in very many countries, all within a very short time period, I am indeed very very doubtful if it is coincidental.

Who has the power/influence to organise that?

[pags]

I wish I could believe it is just a few corporations behind all that is happening .....  but i don't.

They seem more like a 'willing participant' than the real leaders .......  which is rather depressing ......

I have a different opinion. I believe the politicians are the willing participants, as a result of "campaign contributions", as well as other stipends. It's the corporations who are running the show.

I'm not sure Just18 was implying it was a politics over corporation issue.  My take on it was that there is another (or, group of) undisclosed party (parties), exercising a (possibly) unknown agenda.\
Very Illuminati-esque (sp?).

Well I hope I didn't quite say ......  but, considering there is a concerted effort, on many different fronts, in very many countries, all within a very short time period, I am indeed very very doubtful if it is coincidental.

Who has the power/influence to organise that?

If I mis-interpreted you, please say so, and I apologize (only you know your intent, ultimately).

However, expecting such co-ordinated co-operation among "dis-jointed" fellows as governments is a little much (IMHO).  Multi-national corporations, however, make a convenient "glue" to bring it together (and throwing a couple "smaller players" out into the open, such as the MPAA or RIAA, gives it apparent focus).

Your'e right, though:

Who has the power/influence to organise that?