Now it's Filesonic, the witch hunt was officialy begin.

[ScorpSt]

Sites that hold copyrighted material get taken down. Why is this a big deal? You want the content, pay for it.

I don't know about others but I mostly download TV shows. As far as I am aware there is no legal way for me to be able to watch the next episode of, say, Fringe other than a) moving to US b) waiting a year or more while hoping that one of the local channels decides to buy the show and dub it.

eztv.it, and uTorrent. Works for me, EZTV are great uploaders, and they have all sorts of shows. Even that new Alcatraz series, which only has 2 episodes so far but seems to be worth watching. I feel your pain, but I wouldn't know what to do with myself without torrents - other than moving to the US, and putting up with an ad break every 5 minutes.

Something I've been wondering about TV in the UK. Since you guys don't have ad breaks, what happens if you're in the middle of an episode of say "Doctor Who" and you have to use the bathroom, or want to get a snack? I mean, I understand that now, if you have a DVR, you can just pause it, but what about people without DVRs or pre-DVR? Did you just miss part of the episode?

I think because it's a Swedish hosted website? The US has no jurisdiction over it.

Except megaupload was hosted in Hong Kong, and the US somehow had jurisdiction there (servers seized etc.)

I'm no expert on international law, but how can the FBI throw their weight around in New Zealand and Hong Kong like that?

EDIT: It seems they did indeed have server mirrors state-side. So, yeah.

It wasn't about where it was hosted or where the CEOs were or even where the company was registered. Everyone arrested in the case were US citizens and therefor subject to US law. The people who run TPB are not US citizens so there is no way to extradite them to the US.

 

[Xanthious]

The title of this thread made me believe it was about incorrect English. Honestly learn some propper grammar. My English is far (very) far from perfect, but I at least give it a serious attempt:

Now it's Filesonic, the witch hunt has officially begun.

Though really that comma shouldn't be there. Maybe a semi-colon, but I'm rarely 100% sure of their use. A better sentence would be "Now it's Filesonic, and so the witch hunt has officially begun." Commas are commonly misplaced to denote a pause, but they should't be used in this situation without an "and", "but", "therefore", etc.

Or add "with" before FileSonic, and add another comma after "Now". Also, putting "officially" between "has" and "begun" creates a variation of a split infinitive, another grammatical pothole. I think the best way to rewrite the thread title would be:

"Now, with FileSonic being taken down, the witch hunt has begun."

Grammar-Nazi mouth-breathing aside, this is starting to get out of hand. I can understand trying to curb piracy, but there's a ton of collateral damage already bleeding from the seams. Eventually the very businesses these blowhards are trying to help are going to suffer damage beyond repair.

And when the FBI realizes this too late and makes an awkwardly-delivered statement akin to "Uh... our bad. Heh... ^__^' ," the entire collective of the US population will shake their heads in exasperation, muttering an equally disgruntled "What a bunch of fucking idiots...". And it will be simultaneously glorious, hilarious, and ridiculous.

The proper way to title this thread would be "Filesonic pulls content and bans users for no damn reason". The way it's written makes it seem like Filesonic went the way of MegaUpload and they haven't. Filesonic pulled their own content and made their own restrictions. None of these file sharing sites that are out there acting like a bunch of spineless cowards have had anything happen to them yet. They are just over reacting to what happened to MegaUpload.

 

[Meight08]

This is fucking ridiculous.

Both what happened to the sites AND the people here who aren't mad about it.

Even if you are against all downloading, legal or otherwise, get mad about the principle. You realize they could do the EXACT same thing to Youtube and every other video or media site on the net for the same reasons.

This also seems relevant:
[spoiler/][image/]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0TONnjbkwfw/TbolRvSNaQI/AAAAAAAAACM/46OTp5TAA0g/s1600/14+-+Monument+at+Holocaust+Memorial.JPG[/IMG][/spoiler]
Possible Godwin's Law or melodramatic violation, but the point still stands; Stop this shit NOW before they get to the stuff YOU care about.

This is not being done by the government its being done by the websites themselves.
Fileserve, Filejungle, Uploadstation and Filesonic - They are deleting several files and closing their membership.
Not by the government they are trying to make the site so they cannon be sued
Uploaded - Banned USA Ip.
Not shut down they just blocked us users so they can not be held accountable.
Filepost and Hotfile - Is suspending all accounts that inflicts their rules
They are just enforcing the dmca better in hope of stopping the us from suing them for hosting copyrighted content.
4shared - Deleting several files
Probably just movies and the likes
Mediafire - Will have to open up to the FBI and depose to them.
They just have to show how they get their money and and disclose user data of illegal downloads probably
Look only mediafire has problems with the fbi and the rest is just websites trying to secure dmca protection now stop being paranoid

And youtube getting shut down?
It has dmca Protection meaning it has protection by law from being shut down.
And reviews fall under fair use.
And stop comparing this to a fucking ethnic cleansing dude!

this is actually a working tactic for now.
They shut down megaupload

which made 175 Milion dollars of off copyrighted content so they deserved to be shut down.
and before you say legal users also used it and got screwed over here is a good example of what they did.
Imagine a warehouse owner knew that people were storing copied DVDs and movies
but instead of going to the cop they just let them stay in exchange for a small percent of the profits

and everybody goes into a tizzy and tries to confirm they have dmca protection.
Thus censoring themselves without the cost of taxpayer money.
So stop screaming.
"ITS THE END OF THA INTERNETZ"
And accept the internet is gonna change like the wild west
and either we find a peaceful solution or we get forced into censorship
and get less than we could have gotten had we cooperated with politicians for better anti piracy laws.

 

[BiscuitTrouser]

And yet somehow literally every industry has grown massively as the internet has developed...Well, except non-digital newspapers I guess..? Funny how the media never complained about that or demanded retarded laws. They just adapted instead. I guess the entertainment industry doesn't give a fuck about adapting, which would also be consistent with their history.

"Every" industry? How does one "adapt" to someone stealing your property? Say I make games or a living and by selling games, I make money. Then suddenly people find a way to play my games without ever having to pay. How do I make my money? "Adapting" seems to mean just getting a different job. This isn't defending free speech like with SOPA. This is defending theft. Imagine instead of Amazon.com selling TVs, they just gave away TVs online.

You see this guy? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2089954/Megaupload-founder-Kim-Dotcom-sprang-electronic-locks-Bond-villain-lair-police-swooped.html

Lives is a mansion built on the back of providing a service for people to steal from artists. He made millions Had "God" on his license plates. If you want to "stand up" for this guy, feel free, but he looks a lot more like a "fat cat" than any of the millions of people he stole from.

This should be in the OP ^

This man made MONEY from torrents. He actively SOLD other peoples work illegally to afford this stuff. He is a thief. He deserved everything he got.

Im fine with streaming the walking dead because im british and my schedule wont let me watch it on telly where its free anyway. Im NOT ok with downloading things i usually have to pay for and paying someone else less to fund their egomanaical lifestyle to do so.

Megaupload deserved it. Theres not much more to say.

This is fucking ridiculous.

Both what happened to the sites AND the people here who aren't mad about it.

Youtube doesnt let users upload full movies and then let said users make money to afford luxuries by selling someone elses work. Youtube also doesnt commit the MANY crimes that this person did. At least get facts straight people. Anyone defending this thief is woefully misinformed of his crimes.

He basically made money by selling illegal copies of OTHER peoples work. How SHOULD this be allowed. Its abd enough when you pirate things and NO one gets paid. Its worse when its some randomer who laughs in the faces of the original developer.

 

[SageRuffin]

Anyway, I don't really care about Megaupload or FileSonic. I care more about Fair Use being removed. No more Let's Plays, no more walkthroughs, no more reviews...no more clips of quotes from movies to to emphasize how we feel on a subject!!!


Apparently i can haz cheezburger, but i can't haz intrenetz.

You wanna hear some really dumb shit? I'm currently in the process of dropping some gameplay videos of the new SR3 DLC. Some parts are getting flagged because of me playing some of the music that's featured on the in-game radio stations.

Yes, you read that italicized part correct: I'M GETTING FLAGGED FOR LISTENING TO MUSIC LICENSED FOR THE GAME ITSELF.

An analogy for anyone who still doesn't quite understand how ridiculous this sounds: a few months ago, a woman put up a completely innocuous video of her baby playing with a toy. Harmless, right? She was threatened to have her video taken down because of a song playing IN THE BACKGROUND. My situation is very similar to that.

 

[SageRuffin]

The proper way to title this thread would be "Filesonic pulls content and bans users for no damn reason". The way it's written makes it seem like Filesonic went the way of MegaUpload and they haven't. Filesonic pulled their own content and made their own restrictions. None of these file sharing sites that are out there acting like a bunch of spineless cowards have had anything happen to them yet. They are just over reacting to what happened to MegaUpload.

I see... "knowledge is power" indeed. Some clarification would do wonders, well... everywhere.

 

[Craig Forshaw]

The problem with this is less that it is about right and wrong, and more about the people who make laws, and lobby for laws, getting paid for making things illegal.

You only have to look at the UK prior to the 1984 video recordings act, and the subsequent anti-piracy measures brought in to help enforce it. Prior to the act you had hundreds of small, commercial disributors and film-makers finally able to reach their audience. Afterwards, they were squeezed out as the cost of classification effectively meant they wouldn't be able to turn a profit on distribution, and wouldn't be able to purchase any further titles.

The exact same thing is what is happening here. The people who were pushing SOPA don't want to stop piracy: they want you to pay every time you play a game, or watch a film, for every minute. The first stop is to stop the cheap alternatives, and then force everyone into an exploitative model that benefits only them.

The fact is that filesharing isn't even damaging anyone in any industry. The whole thing is a myth: insider reports constantly show that those who download are usually the people who spend the most on their media, and those things that are downloaded are usually pre-release copies, or inaccessable elsewhere, and then when released those people downloading them are amongst the first to shell out at the highest, early-adapter prices. There are also examples of filesharing giving people access to content they had no other way, and some film-makers finding an audience they would never have had otherwise.

Then you look at the amount of money being brought in: 'Modern Warfare' continues to break records, 'Avatar' made a fortune, and this was despite them being amongst the most downloaded content. The fact is that even then, the majority of the money doesn't go to the artists, but people who are so wealthy they don't actually need the incredibly small amount they lost.

And it is incredibly small, because there is a difference between being given access to a huge library for free, and being charged for each book. People who fileshare will download more content than they could ever watch because they can, but they wont buy more content than they could ever watch because they could never afford it. And to launch an attack like this during a recession is just irresponsible, especially as, psychologically speaking, the human mind does not equate clicking a button marked "download now" with stealing, because it isn't stealing - as the name implies, it is sharing.

Then there is the simple argument: since when was sharing a bad thing? Surely, if I take my copy of 'The Matrix' round to a friends, and let them watch it, aren't I sharing the content? Shouldn't the burden of proof be on those who invest in the content (many of which wouldn't need any kind of return to continue living a fabulous lifestyle) to prove they have been hurt when someone doesn't pay to view their work.

Finally, there is the question of how some types of media will inevitably become obsolete. Why should we continue to support an inferior means of content delivery, such as the cinema, just because some rich people with access to lobbyists decide they don't want to admit it is dying a death, and has been for a very long time. Whenever I go to the cinema my choices are poor: an Adam Sandler "comedy", some inferior found-footage horror, generic flag-waving action, or a chick-flick that insults every woman on Earth. Compare that with online, which potentially has everything. Ever.

This is just the American Empire doing its best to burn down their own library of Alexandra.

 

[alandavidson]

Sites that hold copyrighted material get taken down. Why is this a big deal? You want the content, pay for it.

I don't know about others but I mostly download TV shows. As far as I am aware there is no legal way for me to be able to watch the next episode of, say, Fringe other than a) moving to US b) waiting a year or more while hoping that one of the local channels decides to buy the show and dub it.

You can actually watch the show on Fox's website for free, anytime.

 

[Krion_Vark]

videobb is down and file post is banning accounts....
Ive got a feeling anonymous wont stay quite about this one....
weird when I started the same post whit a different less appealing title I didnt got any comments...

What won't they stay quiet about the sites doing it of their own free will? The mega upload was the FBI the rest are out of FEAR for the FBI so Anon has no ground to stand on if they want to start going after people for this.

 

[Sylveria]

and everybody goes into a tizzy and tries to confirm they have dmca protection.
Thus censoring themselves without the cost of taxpayer money.
So stop screaming.
"ITS THE END OF THA INTERNETZ"
And accept the internet is gonna change like the wild west
and either we find a peaceful solution or we get forced into censorship
and get less than we could have gotten had we cooperated with politicians for better anti piracy laws.

I think we've already seen what politicians feel are "better anti piracy laws."

And people like to shit all over the "Think about the non-pirate users" claim, but yeah, what about them? What if people who had self-created content, like reviews or whatever, hosted on those sites? Under the "better laws" you want, if the happened to have a clip or whatever in them, there's a very real chance that those files could get removed or the entire site taken down. Youtube already has to deal with this stuff all the time with DMCA claims on stuff that is obviously fair use.

Bring on the brave new world where publishers, labels, the FBI, whoever write the laws and can shut down stuff at a whim. Who needs internet startup companies when we have doddering old publishers to keep providing us with quality content at reasonable prices.. oh wait. Can't wait till The Escapist get's shut down and we can get our gaming news from Fox, that'll be glorious.

 

[Yopaz]

Mediafire is down? That was my favourite sharing tool. I have shared videos (my own stuff), programs and pictures there. I hate how they also punish us who use it for legal means.

 

[Right Hook]

I wouldn't be too worried guys, something will replace them, maybe not in the same form but something will come. Where there is the possibility to make money there will always be someone ready to exploit it. As for me, I'm not too worried, I don't download movies or shows and while it'll suck if I can't stream them anymore, I'll just watch them when they premier or go to the theater for movies which I actually enjoy doing. I am adamant about buying all of my games, not because I consider myself some great honorable man but because I can afford too (I'm not rich, I don't have that much extra money but I can afford it like most people can if they are being honest with themselves). The only place it would really suck would be music but I guess I'll just limit the bands I like, I'll stop supporting bands who I only somewhat enjoy because I'm only willing to pay money for music I really like, the rest I've just downloaded and then supported the band by telling others about it or going to one of their shows but I guess I probably won't be able to do that as much if all my money is wasted buying other music. If anyone hasn't watched the newest episode of the Jimquisition, you should probably get on that, it is relevant to this thread.

 

[oktalist]

Prohibition seemed like a good idea, and remember what happened with that. As soon as you start clamping down on something this big, it becomes something that organised crime can start taking advantage of.

 

[Radeonx]

NONE OF THEM ARE WORKING!!

Great, now I'm offcially bored for the next few months.

You totally SHOULDN'T use bittorrent instead of direct downloads like Megaupload and stuff.
'Cause torrenting that would be immoral and illegal.

The funny thing is, this was supposed to be the reality only if SOPA passed, and yet, here we are.

I hate to tell people "I told you so," but....

I'm pretty sure the big gripe about SOPA was less about all of the pirate sites being taken down and more about all the shady backroom stuff the government is now allowed to do with the internet.
Maybe I'm confusing it with another bill, because I stopped following SOPA once I realized that it was never going to pass, but I believe it allowed them to get most of your information and see a ton of stuff that they shouldn't be seeing. Or maybe everyone just loves free shit and doesn't wanna give it up. One of the two.

 

[bakan]

Anyway, I don't really care about Megaupload or FileSonic. I care more about Fair Use being removed. No more Let's Plays, no more walkthroughs, no more reviews...no more clips of quotes from movies to to emphasize how we feel on a subject!!!

Apparently i can haz cheezburger, but i can't haz intrenetz.

Let's Plays etc already get taken down, e.g. Tales of Xilia videos get taken down for copyright infringement - even though you might think that you are helping advertising those games for free...

 

[Meight08]

and everybody goes into a tizzy and tries to confirm they have dmca protection.
Thus censoring themselves without the cost of taxpayer money.
So stop screaming.
"ITS THE END OF THA INTERNETZ"
And accept the internet is gonna change like the wild west
and either we find a peaceful solution or we get forced into censorship
and get less than we could have gotten had we cooperated with politicians for better anti piracy laws.

I think we've already seen what politicians feel are "better anti piracy laws."

And people like to shit all over the "Think about the non-pirate users" claim, but yeah, what about them? What if people who had self-created content, like reviews or whatever, hosted on those sites? Under the "better laws" you want, if the happened to have a clip or whatever in them, there's a very real chance that those files could get removed or the entire site taken down. Youtube already has to deal with this stuff all the time with DMCA claims on stuff that is obviously fair use.

Bring on the brave new world where publishers, labels, the FBI, whoever write the laws and can shut down stuff at a whim. Who needs internet startup companies when we have doddering old publishers to keep providing us with quality content at reasonable prices.. oh wait. Can't wait till The Escapist get's shut down and we can get our gaming news from Fox, that'll be glorious.

The fuck!
you think i want censorship stop pulling fake claims out of your ass!
We stopped sopa and pipa we can continue to do so again until we get a law that makes us say.
With better laws i mean laws that are superior to sopa and pipa in every way and improve the internet.
"Mmhhhm this might actually work and it cant be misused like sopa and if this passes the internet might actually become a safe place and possible cripple piracy"
What if we stopped a non intrusive well worded law that would have only protected consumers and publishers alike?
And Hollywood makes a gigantic push for a law worse then sopa and we are unable to stop it.
Gratz we just got screwed and we could have easily gotten of with something better.
Either we Work with politicians and people with experience with the web and help create a law that can only kill sites like pirate bay and the likes.
Or we keep fighting till we lose and we will all be fucked instead of annoyed with the ocassional temporary shutdown or fbi inspection of a website.
Now Choose your fucking posion!
1:A law that only sometimes causes mild annoyance for internet users.
Like seeing the escapist down for a day untill the intro songs of earlier zp songs get removed.
or a site that unwittingly broke a review embargo and has to remove/modify it.
2:A law that murders the internet get hundreds of people jailed for all their money and get felony charges.
And shut down the escapist,ign,gametrailers,gamestop,twitter,youtube and facebook.
I know what posion im gonna pick do you?

 

[Sandytimeman]

Doesn't Which hunt imply innocents on the part of the victim? The fact of the matter is megauploads was in the wrong on the way they made money off copyrighted content. Youtube doesn't give out partnerships to people who upload copyrighted content but thats basically what mega did.

Because Mega got caught doing things that were against the law, they have paid the price. These other services are just trying to keep their own nose clean. And thats cool by me.

Except for the fact that you are missing all the innocent victims hurt by this being small businesses, bigger businesses, start up companies, and individual artists and developers, and people reliant on file sharing to conduct their business and fill in the gap so that they can access their files in the cloud.

What you forget is that the attack on this isn't so much on file sharing but also on cloud computing, the very technology we are meant to rely on to conduct business and solve that "oh I forgot my presentation/homework" problem.

Do not forget how many people who honestly can't get any decent work in this terrible economy are reliant on these servers affiliate program to generate revenue that supports their business. Many websites I go to were reliant on these services to pay the bills and are now asking for donations or they are going to go offline cause they can't support this alone. They were reliant on the consumers consuming their goods and services.

Also don't forget a good deal of content you can't get on a national basis cause the retailer even if online cannot legally sell their goods abroad. Remember that whole "Rapelay" issue? Well take out the sex but there is still the impossibility to actually get goods from other nations simply because they cannot sell consumers across the world a legitimate copy due to laws and regulation.

So there are many repercussions that you aren't thinking about when it comes to the big picture. I'm not being all doom and gloom here but it certainly is a step backwards in what we can do online than simply "downloading" stuff from the internet. It is telling is specifically what we can and cannot do online and prevents any pursuit of education or profit towards storage solutions to which is a big problem for both big and small businesses and individuals.

Note I do feel those small business's pain in that I used to run and own a startup site (918thefan.com for reference).

And I completely understand the pain as we used Megauploads to transfer video files around during projects and such. They now use an FTP server for that, but in the beginning yeah Megauploads really helped us out.

I guess what I'm saying is that people seem to be over-reacting to mega getting taken down. They were taken down for completely legit reasons (ie allowing alot of copyrighted works to make money for people other then the copyright holders)

from the way the ops post looked it seems just like the sites trying to police themselves from similar problems. Not legal action being taken against them.

Should all free file sharing be done away with? No of course not. Should the government have to look over every single file to make sure its not copyrighted material? No.

I'm just saying that file sharing sites need to make it apparent that, they will only allow you to share materials that are you own, and if they get sent a letter by a copyright holder take further action. Be more pro-active in the way that Youtube is and how youtube has been avoiding futher legal action taken against it.

I'm not trying to imply that I don't think file sharing shouldn't be allowed.

 

[O maestre]

Sites that hold copyrighted material get taken down. Why is this a big deal? You want the content, pay for it.

This springs to mind...

Meh, it doesn't bother me. I pay for all my stuff.

funny and appropriate, CnH is always there for the occasion

but in all seriousness, you seem to be stuck in the narrow view that all these sites ever did was distribute pirated material. i myself and associated friends have used 4shared to upload some of our former bands music. in general while there was a alot of copyright infringement, 4shared was a treasure trove for finding out about media that was not purchasable elsewhere. it might surprise you, but i relied on 4shared almost half as much as youtube for finding new content, especially created music from non english speaking countries like brazil.

so good for you that this doesn't effect you, and here is a scooby snack for being such a good consumer. i however wish you would consider conceding to the fact that moves like this are culturally stunting, and in the end i see a move that has potentially prevented lost revenue of the few, but has instigated a path that will without a doubt stunt if not downright shatter global culture .

this and any other initiatives will prove to be imprudent, piracy like prostitution will always find a way to thrive no matter what they do. but the idea of creation, sharing and then reshaping and re-sharing that has sustained the entirety of human culture since the beginning of our civilization, will no longer be a free process. i assume that if it were up to these corporate people, every single thing created, past,present and future should be syndicated.

lastly i hope i was not too condescending and did not cause any permanent offense, i just cannot stand the flaunting of apathy. i am not blind though, piracy is a problem, but this is not the solution we need, at best it incites greater enmity between designated "content distributors" and people. at worst it is the first(several) step(s) towards what i described in paragraph above.