Megaupload shut down

[Astaroth]

I think it's interesting how some people apparently believe that it is their "right" to have access to games or movies online. Quite a few seem to believe that products that are "too expensive" or contain too much DRM are fair game for pirating.

That's something I don't quite get. I believe it's fairly simple: Want the game and don't mind paying the (in your opinion high price)? Buy it, or wait until it's cheaper. If you don't want to pay that much, just don't buy it.

I mean, I don't go around stealing expensive brand clothes from stores, either, just because I don't want to pay hundreds of euros for them...

[(s)AINT]

The problem is the companies that are well off get greedy about their games. They put ridiculous DRM and other restrictions that make it a pain for people who bought it. That leads a lot of people to pirate.

A good example of Ubisoft - a company that used to have a good reputation but now just s over their customers one game after anther.

If companies don't want their games pirated - they should stop ing people over and drop the loosing money complex.

[Yosemite]

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/...est=latestnews

(I know it's Foxnews, bloohoohoo)

"Federal prosecutors in Virginia have shut down one of the world's largest file-sharing sites, Megaupload.com, and charged its founder and others with violating piracy laws -- a day after a 24-hour blackout of popular websites such as Wikipedia drew national attention to the issue.

The indictment is among the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States, according to the FBI."

It looks like we're getting a taste of SOPA already. Well it looks like alot of the mods are going to have to find a new place to upload their files. :/

But for more proof try going to the Megaupload site. You can't. So this adds more credence to the story.

there was a lot of pirated stuff on megaupload

a ton of it even

[The Vitiated Mind]

[Stagfish]

My main worry is that the American Government will get overconfident and take down sites for really stupid reasons.

[mattgoby]

Well check amazon netflix hulu. Don't be a lazy thief. Methods exist.

Actually this might not be true, i have downloaded plenty of music from one certain band simply because i cannot legally buy any of there cd's and bugger off am i using i tunes. If one of their cd's does come back into stock ANYWHERE i am snapping it up immediately though

[mattgoby]

On another note, this is going to be such a pain for so many mods

[Astaroth]

The problem is the companies that are well off get greedy about their games. They put ridiculous DRM and other restrictions that make it a pain for people who bought it. That leads a lot of people to pirate.

A good example of Ubisoft - a company that used to have a good reputation but now just s over their customers one game after anther.

If companies don't want their games pirated - they should stop ing people over and drop the loosing money complex.

I'm saying it is no excuse. Sure, it will inevitably happen, but trying to justify what they are doing is impossible. Think a game has too much DRM? Well, don't buy or play it then, no problem.

[(s)AINT]

I wonder who paid off the officials at the DOJ to get the site shut down.

I'm saying it is no excuse. Sure, it will inevitably happen, but trying to justify what they are doing is impossible. Think a game has too much DRM? Well, don't buy or play it then, no problem.

If only it was that simple....

[The Dude]

I mean, I don't go around stealing expensive brand clothes from stores, either, just because I don't want to pay hundreds of euros for them...

The thing is that clothes are in limited supply. Everything physical is in limited supply. A bunch of digital code, which is what anything on the computer is, is by definition not.

Scarcity is what gave birth to the concept of theft. Remove scarcity, and what happens?

The true problem of piracy is not so much the fact that there are people who download things that they would not otherwise have bought. It's the fact that people download things even if they would otherwise have bought it. But that's human nature. Suppose there were unlimited clothes, and one store offers me clothes for a price, and another is not truly a store at all but rather just a building in which clothes are stored that I can walk into and take with me.

Nobody would blame me for walking into the free store, even if I would have spent my money in the other one had the free store not been available. Of course the only ones who do blame me are the people who made the clothes, so morality dictates that we buy them because otherwise these people are gonna be out of work and we're gonna be out of unlimited items.

So essentially it comes down to this: do we sabotage the inclinations of our human nature by simply removing the free option, forcing everyone to do the 'right' thing? Or do we accept that not everyone is generous and understand piracy as a fact of life? Before deciding to throw the banhammer on things we don't like, we should I think stop and consider that we haven't explored all avenues. There are plenty artists and authors out there experiencing with actually earning money in the truest sense of the word, ie releasing their material for free AND for a price, and then waiting to see if people have the courtesy of supporting them financially when it turns out they appreciate what the artist did. And these experiments are yielding some positive results.

[Blau&Gruen]

Megaupload is also a large mod hosters. The idea of shutting it down attacks artistic freedom.

[Nevins]

Megaupload is also a large mod hosters. The idea of shutting it down attacks artistic freedom.

Indirectly it does, it is clearly not the reason it was gone after.

Holy jesus 34 people viewing this thread. That's a lot of people.

[Claudius Gothicus]

The thing is that clothes are in limited supply. Everything physical is in limited supply. A bunch of digital code, which is what anything on the computer is, is by definition not.

The time necessary to structure said digital code is scarce though.

Let's say that you work in a videogame company, of course the reproduction of said game is infinite but the amount of time necessary to actually construct said videogame it's not.

Let's establish that the average Life Expectancy on a 1st World country is something around 75 years. 75 years is 27375 days, let's say that working hours comprehend 8-hours-per-day and the necessary input of labor to finish that game encompasses a month(excluding weekends). So, that's approximately 8 hours per day 5 days a week during 4 weeks. Those are 40 hours a week and 160 in total(a whole month, the expected time to finish the game).

160 hours equal 20 laboring days(160 divided by 8 working hours) therefore by downloading for free a game you've just stolen someone 20 laboring days of his life and 6.6666666 full days of his/her entire life or 0.02%.

[Astaroth]

The thing is that clothes are in limited supply. Everything physical is in limited supply. A bunch of digital code, which is what anything on the computer is, is by definition not.

That isn't really the case. When buying many types of items nowadays, you don't actually pay money for the physical "product" itself, but rather the concept itself. As in, the reason why an A&F shirt costs 30 $ is not because the material is worth that much, but rather because of the design, the brand name and the production of the shirt (this is obviously an arbitrary value given to it by the company, but the point stands). It being a physical item is basically secondary, because (sad as that might be) the shirt itself is essentially in unlimited supply for all intents in purposes (Southeast Asia, I'm looking at you).

That goes for most modern products actually. The actual cost of technical gadgets, clothes and the likes is negligible.

So really, there is little difference -- in both cases, you are first and foremost stealing/pirating intellectual property and its realization by a company and its workers.

[Vanoi]

Just saying the FBI couldn't have done this unless the authorities in the other countries were helping them.

[Brick Top]

The time necessary to structure said digital code is scarce though.

And believe me, it's appreciated. What we question is the model of distribution which, rather than finding ways to make the most of the reality of the modern day, is trying to expand restrictions which make it so unattractive in the first place.

[Mortality]

My main worry is that the American Government will get overconfident and take down sites for really stupid reasons.

They do, they've done it in the past.

Just saying...

[legate]

Retaliation by Annonymous: They are claiming the biggest attack ever

The Largest Attack Ever by Anonymous - 5,635 People Confirmed Using #LOIC to Bring Down Sites! #Anonymous

Police and FBI websites hit?

[Edward lV]

The film and game industry is large enough to survive without noticing piracy, if they could ignore the insignificant loss in profit. It is one of the only sectors to have remained unscathed by the financial crisis, people haven't stopped buying their products in the same quantities, they now simply download products they would previously have passed on. In fact, I would say they have profited greatly from it, the average price of a game has increased by about £20 from about 4 or 5 years ago, way above the rise in production costs, presumably riding on the rise in cost from products of genuinely struggling industries. Also no significant publisher has collapsed, they have no reason to want to prevent people distributing their films apart from sheer greed.

[Claudius Gothicus]

And believe me, it's appreciated. What we question is the model of distribution which, rather than finding ways to make the most of the reality of the modern day, is trying to expand restrictions which make it so unattractive in the first place.

This a big concern for me as well, and most of you will already know I live in the southern cone of the Americas, a place that's called Argentina and culturally/institutionally/linguistically belongs to the Western World, yet the media-products of the the Hemisphere usually reach this corner of the world very late and very overpriced... if they ever reach these shores at all.

That's a functional reason for me, and many other middle class kids in Argentina, to download certain copyrighted material like small-company movies, certain video games and of course music. Because neither the big companies of the big distributors actually care about fully expanding the market for us to freely and plurally consume all the possible alternatives in terms of services and goods.

From that PoV I can very well say: GO YOURSELF UNIVERSAL BECAUSE YOU DIDN'T PUT X MUSIC ALBUM IN THE SHELVES OF MY LOCAL MUSIC STORE, SO I'M GOING TO STEAL THE OUT OF YOU... and I would be pretty damn justified in doing so.