Megaupload/SOPA issues
All of my scans were uploaded to Megaupload. Obviously, they've now all gone (the links to the LJ galleries are still live though).
I don't think I'm going to reupload them, because really, illegal is illegal. I think that sometimes, we've become so accustomed to having easy access to illegal material that we don't even see it as a big deal any more and feel robbed (huh, irony) when it's taken away.
Uploading illegal stuff to Megaupload was a good run while it lasted, but it was never going to be forever.
That doesn't mean though, that I support Megaupload being taken offline or the wider implications of it.
I had a lot of perfectly legal content on there too. Archives of photos for my friends who don't have a Facebook or wanted HQ photos to download, a few videos of places I've been, a few documents... all owned by me and infringing no copyrights at all.
Why should all of that content have been lost?
Taking down Megaupload and other sites like it in the future, is like trying to exterminate a cockroach problem with a nuclear weapon. You'll take out everything in sight... and the cockroaches will probably survive anyway.
I think what annoys me the most about this though, is that the entertainment industry has nobody to blame but themselves for this entire mess. Most companies seem to be stuck in the days when records were bought on vinyl from the local independent store and movies could only be seen in the cinema.
They buried their heads in the sand when the internet came along and delivered entertainment to us in an instant, cutting out a lot of the middle men that inflate prices in the process, and instead of trying to solve the problem and play catch up, they're branding ordinary people as criminals.
The success of companies like iTunes, Steam and Netflix show that people are willing to pay for internet content, if it's delivered correctly. The box office receipts of movies like Avatar and the CD sales of artists like Adele show that people will buy physical copies too.
But only if you give them something they want to buy!
Why wait six months for a TV show or movie to come to your country, when you can watch it this afternoon on the internet? The movie and TV industries are still trying to enforce the borders that the internet has broken down (I know there are rights issues in different countries, but they can be overcome).
Why buy an expensive CD of an artist you've never heard, when you can download or stream it first to see if you like it? The record industries are too busy selling the same few artists and ruling the playlists to let us hear new blood (jeez, I found GACKT by downloading MARS and Crescent. I dread to think how much money that troll has had out of me since).
But of course... it's all our fault, regardless of whether we used Megaupload legally or illegally. The entertainment industry has no responsibility at all!
Idiots. They're reaping what they sowed.
Stop piracy, stop SOPA, stop PIPA, and stop the entertainment industry (and US government) from making scapegoats out of ordinary people. I hope the Anonymous attacks make enough people aware of this issue, that supporting these bills and actions become political suicide for the politicians and companies behind them.
I don't think I'm going to reupload them, because really, illegal is illegal. I think that sometimes, we've become so accustomed to having easy access to illegal material that we don't even see it as a big deal any more and feel robbed (huh, irony) when it's taken away.
Uploading illegal stuff to Megaupload was a good run while it lasted, but it was never going to be forever.
That doesn't mean though, that I support Megaupload being taken offline or the wider implications of it.
I had a lot of perfectly legal content on there too. Archives of photos for my friends who don't have a Facebook or wanted HQ photos to download, a few videos of places I've been, a few documents... all owned by me and infringing no copyrights at all.
Why should all of that content have been lost?
Taking down Megaupload and other sites like it in the future, is like trying to exterminate a cockroach problem with a nuclear weapon. You'll take out everything in sight... and the cockroaches will probably survive anyway.
I think what annoys me the most about this though, is that the entertainment industry has nobody to blame but themselves for this entire mess. Most companies seem to be stuck in the days when records were bought on vinyl from the local independent store and movies could only be seen in the cinema.
They buried their heads in the sand when the internet came along and delivered entertainment to us in an instant, cutting out a lot of the middle men that inflate prices in the process, and instead of trying to solve the problem and play catch up, they're branding ordinary people as criminals.
The success of companies like iTunes, Steam and Netflix show that people are willing to pay for internet content, if it's delivered correctly. The box office receipts of movies like Avatar and the CD sales of artists like Adele show that people will buy physical copies too.
But only if you give them something they want to buy!
Why wait six months for a TV show or movie to come to your country, when you can watch it this afternoon on the internet? The movie and TV industries are still trying to enforce the borders that the internet has broken down (I know there are rights issues in different countries, but they can be overcome).
Why buy an expensive CD of an artist you've never heard, when you can download or stream it first to see if you like it? The record industries are too busy selling the same few artists and ruling the playlists to let us hear new blood (jeez, I found GACKT by downloading MARS and Crescent. I dread to think how much money that troll has had out of me since).
But of course... it's all our fault, regardless of whether we used Megaupload legally or illegally. The entertainment industry has no responsibility at all!
Idiots. They're reaping what they sowed.
Stop piracy, stop SOPA, stop PIPA, and stop the entertainment industry (and US government) from making scapegoats out of ordinary people. I hope the Anonymous attacks make enough people aware of this issue, that supporting these bills and actions become political suicide for the politicians and companies behind them.