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MegaUpload is now deceased for all intents and purposed and in the wake of its closure several other file sharing sights have shuttered in anticipation of another wave of crackdowns. For its part MegaUpload says that it is simply a cloud where users can upload and share their files. Over time MegaUpload had become the largest site of its kind boasting a position in the top 20 most trafficked web sites and number 1 for file sharing. While MegaUpload had become riddled with copyrighted work, they were also diligent in working with the owner of intellectual property when it came to the removal of protected work. The government says that MegaUpload was promoting piracy and should be held accountable.
This is the first time in many years that the government go after such a large site for piracy. The last time I can remember a case this large was when they first went after Napster. Napster's case was different as Napster had acted as an active pass-through for copyrighted material. Later Kazzaa and other Peer to Peer programs would work to directly connect two users and just acting as a program to facilitate the transfer -- a loophole that was never closed. MegaUpload is different in that they are not supposed to know what is stored in a users space but offered access to anyone who had a link to the file. MegaUpload claims that their users are responsible for what is in their storage unit the same way the owner of a locker would not be libel for what customers store there. The government has basically determined that it is easier to go after MegaUpload for their part rather than directly after the people responsible for the pirated material.
What really stings is that people who relied on MegaUpload to store legal data are currently at risk of losing everything. MegaUpload which runs a business that is similar to other cloud services has now been shut down before a trial has taken place. Their CEO Kim Dot-Com jailed without bail and all funds have been frozen.
I tend to think the government would have been better off taking some of MegaUpload's biggest pirates and prosecute them individually. That would have sent a ripple effect through the world that the government will not allow people to distribute intellectual property that doesn't belong to them. They could have subpeonaed user records and built a case against each of the users. I know I would think twice about seeding a torrent or uploading copyrighted material to the cloud if I risked going to jail over it. I suppose all those people will simply go back to using bit torrent to get what they want. It will be interesting to see how all this plays out in court.
