Closing Megaupload

I've never heard of Megaupload until recently, when all this talk of it closing down came about. I've done my research and it was a website, like any other site where millions of people visit to access and share music files. It happens to be one of the 13^th most visited websites on the web (http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/faq-what-is-megaupload/2012/01/20/gIQAIiqFEQ_story.html). I personally don't see why it was shut down, if its just another file sharing website. There are many websites still out there illegally distributing music and they're still in business. They are beginning to crack down on such websites though, so I don't see the rest lasting much longer. Piracy will soon be gone all together and we'll be forced to buy mp3s or Cds.

With the recent shut down of Megaupload, the website owner, Kim Dotcom, along with others were arrested. They are currently in a New Zealand jail awaiting their trials (http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/2012/01/23/20120123Megaupload-executive-Kim-Dotcom-jailed.html). If Dotcom is found guilty this time around, he is looking at 20 years of jail time. It is more like a routine for this man, as he's already had many trials for the same reasoning, but this time they are really cracking down (http://freshinfos.com/2012/01/23/kim-dotcom-pirate-of-the-megaupload/).

Kim Dotcom, is the mastermind behind the whole megaupload scheme. The operation of distributing the copy-right files, such as music, movies and tv shows's racked in 175 million dollars. It has been rumoured, they would pay people who uploaded large amounts of copyright-protected files (http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/2012/01/23/20120123Megaupload-executive-Kim-Dotcom-jailed.html).

Dotcom is also guilty of other things, besides being the king of piracy. He also hacked banks, utility companies and the popular game “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3” (http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/2012/01/23/20120123Megaupload-executive-Kim-Dotcom-jailed.html).

A little S.O.P.A update

It is pretty obvious why S.O.P.A was dropped soon after it was brought up. So many were against the bill, thousands or millions of people protested! It really brought everyone together. Surprisingly even got teenagers interested in politics for one day, as their lives seem to revolve around the internet net, and that was really what was threatened. To take away such social sites as Tumblr, Facebook, etc would cut off all their social lives. This also enables downloading movies and music. Music is a sens of expression for teenagers, specifically during the stage where kids try to define themselves. Most kids don't go out and get jobs, so to pay 99 cents for a song from iTunes is out of the question. They search for other ways to get music, which is piracy.

Barack Obama has said that he doesn't support any bill that takes away freedom of speech or of expression. I agree one hundred percent on this because that's really what was going to happen. In the chart of human rights, we are allowed freedom of expression, and to remove that from everyone is to go against humanity (http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/white_house_opposes_sopa_congress_drops_bill/).



The hopes to pass S.O.P.A have been trying to go through since before Christmas. A vote was supposed to happen January 25^th, but even before that happened, they suppressed the idea. Its due to be brought up again next month. AGAIN, because it does not look like it will be happen. It will be the same story. To just put the idea of S.O.P.A to rest, is the best idea they could have. Taking away our freedom of speech could easily lead to revolting.



Limewire Lawsuit

Limewire was a huge website used to download and/or share music,videos and movies. It's a site I, myself used for a few years for all my downloads. Everybody I know used Limewire for their downloads, it was a very popular website. It had everything you were looking for, even new unreleased mp3s and movies still in theatres. So much piracy was done by this system. However, Last year it was closed down after going through a lawsuit for distributing copy-right infringement. Everyone was devastated and had to find new alternatives to finding their music, and such. After searching, there was no website quite as good because many others didn't contain the amount of content Limewire had, or it was very poor quality.

Over thirty publishers and thirteen record labels participated in the lawsuit against Limewire. Record companies own copyrights to the recordings and record labels own copyrights to the songs themselves. (http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2032464/limewire-settles-lawsuit-music-publishers). As Limewire distributed everything under the sun, such people as EMI, Sony Cooperation, Vivendi, BMG, Sony BMG, etc got themselves involved. However an agreement was brought between Limewire and the publishers in which the details have not been made public. The case was dismissed and decided that it could not be brought back up in court again (http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2032464/limewire-settles-lawsuit-music-publishers).

If I had to guess what the agreement was, it was probably Limewire giving the publishers money to drop the lawsuit and promise to either not re-open their systems and continue to distributed music or to create an alliance that will re-open their servers in the future as a website to sell mp3s. Something like that. It would be ideal to join forces to create a website where content such as mp3s, videos and movies are sold rather than distributed illegally. They could make a lot of money and compete against such services as iTunes.

Movie Stores closing

Renting a movie is way cheaper than buying a movie. Its also more practical because normally after you buy a new released movie, its watched maybe a few times and lent to someone else to watch it. Really, other than that, a movie sits on the shelf collecting dust. It's ridiculous to pay 40$ for a movie you'll only watch maybe a maximum of five times.. maybe. Before, buying a movie was less expensive but with times and the economy growing, prices go up.

As a child, going to the movie store, like Blockbuster or Rogers to rent a movie on a Saturday night was always a treat. To agree on a movie with my brother wasn't the easiest thing, but sometimes we could both get our own movies that we had to take turns using the DVD player. Renting games and television series was ideal too. I rented movies at Rogers until it closed, then switched to renting movies at Blockbuster until they closed too.

Renting a movie has never been called illegal or considered piracy. I'm sure money reaches the movie companies too. For the movie stores though, have actually closed down because they just don't make enough money anymore. This must mean, that movie producers and actors haven't been getting as much money either. People are always burning movies and distributing them or just watching movies online, with websites such as Netflix. Where does that put people who actually did rent movies? This is like forcing them to conform to illegal copy right because they have no other ways to get a hold of movies any other way it seems, unless they pay a ridiculous amount of money to buy it.

Rumours have had it, that Blockbuster was actually bought out by another company and will soon be re-opening. I've heard this time and time again just as Blockbuster was closing by their workers. If they re-open, I can imagine that they'd make a lot of money because a lot of people don't have access to a computer to download movies or watch computers online. I'll believe it when I see it though, because personally I think the movie renting stores were just driven to the ground.

What Ever Happend to Napster?

Napster was created by a nineteen year old in goal of creating a website where mp3s could be shared by a file sharing system over the internet (http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/N/Napster.html). If you searched a name of a song or an artist/group, a list of various users with those songs would show up. Double click the song and you could download the song straight from the other user's hard drive. The website lasted a solid two years before being closed down due to infringement on copy righted published music (http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/N/Napster.html).

An example of a lawsuit filed against Napster is the case pursued by Metallica. Metallica inc. actually filed a lawsuit against 300,000 fans under the law of Digital Millennium Copyright Act. After this happened, hundreds of thousands Napster users has their accounts declined and no longer had the right to access the website (http://www.shreddingradio.com/metallica.html). Metallica inc. delivered a list to Napster of who allegedly used the website to copy Metallica mp3s. Many users testified, saying they never copied any music and were allowed to have their accounts back, only them though (http://www.shreddingradio.com/metallica.html).

After all Napster has been through, you'd have thought that they closed down a long time ago. However, it wasn't until December 1^st, 2011 that they permanently closed their doors to the public because they joined forces with another website called Rhapsody (http://flavorwire.com/236757/napster-no-more-website-closes-permanently-tomorrow). Napster was actually purchased by Best Buy in order to merge with Rhapsody to make it into a website where music is purchased, such as iTunes or to compete against the Apple company (http://flavorwire.com/236757/napster-no-more-website-closes-permanently-tomorrow).

Personally, I have never heard of Napster until discussed with a teacher. It was popular back when I was a child, in grade one and at that time my family didn't own a computer. As I grew up, the most popular site used to download music was Lime wire, but that is gone too. I understand file sharing is wrong, however artists already make a lot of money from tours, merchandise sales and even the people who are hardcore fans that actually still buy Cds. It's weird to think, that sometimes, artists or bands even lose fans due to not being able to download their music and such.

S.O.P.A

Lately there has been a lot of talk about S.O.P.A, but what is it really?


LOLJK :)

So back to all seriousness, what is this S.O.P.A everyone is freaking out about?

First of all, S.O.P.A stands for
Stop.
Online.
Piracy.
Act.

This is an anti-piracy law. This would shut down all illegal content on the internet. This basically means shutting down any websites that contains innapropriate and copyright infrigment. The main target would be any downloading websites and also websites such as youtube and others to watch movies.
Rumors have been spreading that breaking the laws put in place by S.O.P.A can lead to five years in jail. Lamar Smith is the mastermind and author of the bill S.O.P.A. He happens to be A U.S representative for Texas's 21st congressional district (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamar_S._Smith).

Rumors have been spreading that breaking the laws put in place by S.O.P.A can lead to five years in jail.

On January 18th, 2012 (just recently), many protests against the act were in motion. For example, many websitesincluded the English Wikipedia and Reddit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act). This protest instructed over eight million viewers to contact politicians, resulting in eight US lawmakers to withdraw their support (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16628143).

A letter sent to New York Times by the U.S Chamber of commerce said, "Rogue Web sites that steal America's innovative and creative products attract more than 53 billion visits a year and threaten more than 19 million American jobs" (http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57329001-281/how-sopa-would-affect-you-faq/). The illegal downloading of music attracts many, and for the reason of downloading movies and cds is causing many people to be put out of jobs. This could be looked at as a positive of passing S.O.P.A because it would create and keep more jobs in the United States.

Something we all do,

To say you've never done this action is a lie because truth is, everyone has done it at least once in their life. It is definitely not something uncommon whatsoever. Some people do it everyday even, it's a part of their routine. People might not realize it sometime or they might think its harmless. However is it something good or is it something bad to do? If you still haven't caught on, I'm talking about music and/or movie piracy. Piracy is the action when you illegally download or record basically anything these days. It's not only downloading from your computer as it is most commonly used today. Even before most families even had a computer, recording shows off t.v using a vcr is considered to being piracy. I know I have been doing it since I was younger. I would wait around all day waiting for a show to come on. I would then ask my mom to hit record so I could over watch the show until I got tired of it.

A great majority of people would actually concider it stealing because you havent paid for the movie or mp3. People above anyone who would consider this stealing is filming companies and also music artists/bands. They put a lot of hard work into everything they do, but it just isn't right for people to go and steal it. The big guys depend on the sales to make profits for themselves. To illegally download and distribute pirated mp3s and movies is so much cheaper and less hastle then going to a store to buy a CD or DVD. These days everything is more costly.

However from personal experiences, I was granted permission. During the summer, I attended an Illscarlett concert (they were amazing, for your information). They're a band signed by a recod label and once and a while their music videos would play on Muchmusic. Their career was heading a little down hill, so personally and to my friends, the lead singer Alex said we could download their latest album IF burned a copy for five of our friends to them on and get them played. Is it wrong even then?