http://www.bgr.com/2012/02/09/megaupload-shutdown-did-nothing-to-slow-piracy-study-finds/
According to this article, illegal or grey-area file-sharing didn't slow with the recent shutdown of file-sharing website Megaupload. Although global Internet traffic decreased temporarily, it was found that much of the content was moved to other sites in other countries.
It seems that the United States government is playing "Whack-a-mole" with piracy. With one targeted site banished, others arise or become more popular. As the suspect content moves elsewhere, the situation is becoming stickier. Despite its declining economy and international power, the US is pressuring other nations to follow in its footsteps on the path to war against abstract concepts. Joining the War on Drugs and War on Terror, the War on Piracy seems to be the US's latest in a series of misguided attempts to exact control where no control should be. Standards of living in the Western world on average are higher than they ever have been in the past. We have more and more time to spend to ourselves, and seemingly through the eyes of the government, more time to spend potentially doing wrong. Although in our modern world it is less clear where to draw the line on certain issues such as censorship and file-sharing, with the technology of the Internet acting as a means of global interaction, the US has attempted to draw these lines closer to home than most would hope. Despite the public outcry against SOPA and PIPA, many US legislators still naively support such acts.
The Internet represents a new age, where people around the world can share content with each other almost simultaneously. Of course this presents the possibility of crime, but when it comes to file-sharing, the US is fighting a losing battle. According to work done by professionals at the University of Minnesota and Wellesley College, US box office sales are not affected by piracy. It makes sense for the US to take a strong stance against the distribution of actual child pornography online, since harm is directly done in the production of such materials. Only monetary harm could be brought about by the sharing of movies or other materials, and this impact seems to be less than the fat cats in Hollywood fear. This is also good for them, since it seems there's not much they can actually do about piracy. If there is a way to share things, people will share them. Laws are not absolute and do not represent morality.
There are plenty of other file sharing sites that are more than happy to replace the services megaupload provided. In general, piracy can't be reduced by much unless there's some major censoring or anti-copy technology, but we've seen these ideas fail over and over just because it starts to intrude on our privacy.
ReplyDeleteWhat businesses need is to move to SaaS, but that only help by removing client-based software. Things like music and movies are definitely still out there ciruclating through file sharing sites. I think a new business model is required...
Personally, I don't think they'll be able to stop piracy at this point. I agree with Jason, I've said in one of my posts they really need to get in on the micro-transactions model. There are so many people in the world even a dollar from each person would make anyone a billionaire. They just have to get over their greed :P
ReplyDeletePiracy has been around ever since we had the technology to copy media, from casette tapes and VHS tapes to CDs and DVDs. To assume that a drop in piracy would occur after the shutdown of Megaupload is absurd. It's a bit sad that media companies don't realize this.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion though, the takedown of Megaupload wasn't purely an attack on piracy. A lot of work went into the investigation, and many people believe it was just a way for the US government to show that they had the ability to shut down big name websites. In addition, the CEO Kim Dotcom isn't exactly a star citizen. There's a huge indictment detailing all the reasons behind the investigation and enabling piracy is just one of them.