COMMENTARY | In case you haven not already heard, file-sharing giant Megaupload was taken down Thursday due to accusations of costing copyright holders more than 500 million dollars in lost revenue from pirated films and other content.
This is an unfortunate blow to Internet freedom. A mere indictment was enough of a reason to take down a website. I honestly can not believe this happened just a day after the majority of the Internet protested against SOPA and PIPA. What is going to get taken down next? YouTube? Reddit? Facebook? Nearly ever single site on the Internet hosts copyrighted material in one format or another, even Yahoo. The removal of one will not change anything.
We do not need SOPA and PIPA to help damage the internet. The U.S. government will go on and do that with or without the bills, as you can see here. What is even more sickening is the fact that Megaupload always quickly removed violating content as it was brought to their attention – complying with the DMCA. That is right – they were the good guys in the file-sharing world! What is the point of following rules when you get charged for a crime regardless?
YouTube works the same exact way. You are not allowed to upload copyrighted content. If you do, it is taken down. There is no realistic way to prevent this sort of thing from happening. The only way would be to have real people watch every single video uploaded before they go live and make a decision on if they should be approved or not. Let’s face it – with nearly 8 years worth of uploads a day, that is never going to happen.
Luckily, our favorite rag-tag group of internet hacktivists took to the news as one would expect, by openly attacking all of the websites responsible for such action being taken against Megaupload. Within an hour after the news Anonymous took down the websites for The Department of Justice, Universal Music Group, MPAA, RIAA, and the U.S. Copyright Office. Anonymous are also claiming credit for taking down BMI’s website and HADOPI (French copyright enforcement). Love them or hate them, Anonymous is the most vocal group of hackers and their bite is most certainly worse than their bark. The corporations targeted are in for a whole world of hurt, and rightfully so.
We are on the brink of an all out revolution.