SOPA aka Internet Censorship: Who's For It, Who's Against It...

[pedonbio]

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[Palomine]

With Megaupload and Filesonic, etc... now out of the filehosting biz, as expected the remaining host companies are picking up the slack whether they like it or not. In response to numerous complaints, here's a reply to a user asking about recent service degradation from FileFactory which is (IMO) probably the next biggest/most widely used host for the kind of stuff BEA users are fond of now that Filesonic is gone.

Hi Bill,

All the 3 issues are related. Within 3 days our traffic has increased 3 fold. As we were not prepared for this not everything can be fixed immediately. However we are constantly in touch with our datacenter and hopefully tonight they can implement a very large increase in our bandwidth capacity. This is not an instant process as switches need to be configured and new cables installed - it's not simply a matter of flicking a switch.

The problem with bandwidth means that:

- download servers take longer to serve out files, so the load increases, meaning new people can't get through so files appear to be down when they actually are not

- downloads are slower because a lot more people are trying to download at once

- FTP transfers are delayed because when trying to move a file to a download server, if the server is under heavy load, this can take longer to do and sometimes the transfer will fail

All these problems will be resolved when the additional bandwidth is implemented.

However given the amount of traffic overall most things are going quite well, although we do know there are some issues.

Regarding the future of FileFactory we have been online since 2005 so we have a very long history and we have always operated with legitimate business model and practices. This is why we have never been quite as popular as other services, but it also means we can continue on because it's business as usual. We see no need to take dramatic action like disable file sharing services.

Hope that answers your questions!

IMO even though SOPA didn't go through as planned, the resulting chilling effect of it's aftermath is the biggest blow to happy internet wanderers since Mario's little boy gave all the ISPs a convenient excuse to stop carrying all the alt.sex.binaries newsgroups. For that, Andrew is fated to experience an intimate weekend of tender yet totally lubricant-free loving from a trio of fully-grown silverback gorillas hopped up on vast quantities of Viagra. At least, that's what'll happen if there's any justice in the world.

[rtpoe]

It's not just the weirdos sharing porn...

Music blogs such as Madrotter, Mutant Sounds, and Global Groove have had years' worth of carefully collected, digitized, and annotated rare and out of print music from around the world wiped out.

[TheZookie007]

There's three lessons to learn.

One, the people legislating should for God's sake get a clue when it comes to how the Internet works.

Two, not every filesharing service is being used for copyright violations -- and even if they were, there are ways to get infringers without SOPA/PIPA-style BS. The law that they used to bring MegaUpload down, PRO-IP, has been on the books since 2008.

Three, backup, backup, backup.

[Palomine]

It's not just the weirdos sharing porn...

What's 'weird' about sharing porn!?

But speaking of all the recent hullabaloo affecting content other than commercial porn or other copyrighted materials:

As it happens, when Megaupload was shut down, I lost three large archives of personal data that I'd been keeping zips of there for distribution to family members. Of course, I still have the files on my drive so it's not like they're lost... but just in the week or so since the kibosh, I've already received two requests to burn DVD-Rs and snail-mail them instead of using another online host. How very 1990s! 

[pedonbio]

Three, backup, backup, backup.

That is always good advice, Zookie, but I had backed a bunch of stuff onto 3.5 disks back in the '90s.

[calcifer]

http://gizmodo.com/5879793/the-fbi-is-already-getting-sued-for-shutting-down-megaupload

[TheZookie007]

Oh noes. It gets worse.

ACTA

[Bad Kitty]

actually ACTA is not even remotely as sinister as SOPA/PIPA.

it's a treaty, not a law. and it's got some copyright infringement provisions in it, but it follows a due process of law, and is more a treaty between signing countries, to not obstruct the pursuit of copyright infringements. It could be abused, but we've had it since 2005 (it's not new), and so far it doesn't really look very sinister at all.

whereas SOPA/PIPA attempted to criminalize half the population of the planet, and hand the internet over to a handful of media corporations to do with as they please.



there is however a new bill I've heard about, which is titled something like "stop **09** pornography act" or something like that, which I hear has some very unrealistic provisions (like sopa/pipa), but I can't comment knowledgeably about it at this time.

[pedonbio]

there is however a new bill I've heard about, which is titled something like "stop **09** pornography act" or something like that, which I hear has some very unrealistic provisions (like sopa/pipa), but I can't comment knowledgeably about it at this time.

I always plead with people to be very skeptical of any act done or law proposed against "chi1d pornoography" or sex crimes against chi1dren. Remember that the last congressional zealot on this topic was Mark Foley, who mostly just wanted to keep other molestors away from his stable. Also, Governor Cuomo used that as an excuse to "persuade" ISPs to drop free newsgroup service and start charging $20 a month for it...See, he figures the $20 will stop all the perverts.

[TheZookie007]

actually ACTA is not even remotely as sinister as SOPA/PIPA.

How do you know though? You can't even see the text of the treaty.

[Bad Kitty]

How do you know though? You can't even see the text of the treaty.

actually you can, here's a pdf:
http://www.international.gc.ca/trade-agreements-accords-commerciaux/assets/pdfs/acta-crc_apr15-2011_eng.pdf

I decided to do some more research on the matter before responding though. Since its always better to be aware of a bevy of opinions and thoughts on a topic before forming an opinion.

Basically ACTA could be interpreted very badly, or very benignly, depending on how you interpet many portions of it. It's a rather vague treaty actually. The fact that normally, vague clauses and disagreements are meant to be interpreted in the context of the cataloged negotiations leading to the treaty, is a bit disconcerting. Because those negotiations have not been made public, and in fact are uncharacteristically secretive.

I'm apposed to ACTA. I think it's bad. But at this point I'm apposed to any and all copyright law making, as I do not view the copyright holding cartels, nor the politicians they openly bribe, as being even remotely trustworthy. I don't personally think that ACTA is as draconian and insane as SOPA, but I doubt that it's 'good' in any sense of the word. I'm sure that in some way or another, it's related to protecting the interests of a dying monopoly, at the expense of civil liberties and free market enterprise... based simply on the fact that the MPAA & friends support it.



Unfortunately it's become like a game of whack-a-mole. Knock down SOPA & PIPA, and you have ACTA come along out of the shadows, then you have ACTA's much meaner and larger evil twin TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement) is in negotiations now, looming behind ACTA. And on the heels of SOPA and PIPA comes the PCIP (Protect Childr3n from Internet Pornographers Act), which from early reports has little to do with childr3n actually, and may in fact just be akin to SOPA/PIPA but with a name designed to create more public sympathy. And in canada there's the C-11 bill, which is basically SOPA's canadian offspring.



The bottom line is that the movie, television, and music industries are becoming dinosaurs as the wheels of society and time roll onward. This has happened to everything from steam engines, to vacuum tubes, to payphones. It's nothing new to industry. But these cartels are so wealthy, and so powerfully connected in politics, that they are basically fighting to fundamentally restructure the playing field so that they don't go extinct, and they can hold onto their monopolized market. at any cost.

It's not the first time something like that has happened either. In new york for example, you can't get a garbage disposal in your sink, because the mob runs the waste management, and they don't want to lose out on having plenty of trash to pick up. so they bribe local politicians to pass laws, and voila, their market is protected from innovation/competition. That's exactly what the MPAA/RIAA/sony/viacom/disney/etc are doing. Except their market isn't trash, they're fighting for absolute control over any and all forms of mass market tools (particularly the one they don't already completely control, the internet).

The movies and tv and music industries are losing money, and their sales are in fact down. but the actual percentage of that which is caused by piracy is tiny. The real problem they face, is that society doesn't care to be their captive audience anymore. Promising young bands are self-promoting on the internet instead of signing with a record label. Upstart film school grads are creating websites and stealing thousands of viewers away from the tv, instead of going to work for the networks. With modern technology in cameras and computers, independent filmmakers can produce reasonably high production value movies without selling out to hollywood. People can play an MMORPG to wind down on a friday night, instead of watching a sitcom. And if you're the one making the sitcom, and charging Chevrolet and Colgate a million dollars a spot for comercial advertising... that's a problem.

Piracy isn't killing the movie or music or tv industry. Even by the supposed numbers the MPAA and RIAA put out, piracy doesn't account for very much of the decline of consumption. And their figures are based on the insane idea that every pirated item would have been bought at full price by everyone who shares it. And even with that sort of crazed logic, it still doesn't account for the bulk of their losses or decline of market. They're losing to 'change'. And they don't like it. And they are willing to kick the teeth out of personal freedoms and civil liberties, and destroy any fair or competitive marketplace, in order to protect their empire.


Y Combinator, a business startup investment group, says in a short essay called "Kill Hollywood":

Hollywood appears to have peaked. If it were an ordinary industry (film cameras, say, or typewriters), it could look forward to a couple decades of peaceful decline. But this is not an ordinary industry. The people who run it are so mean and so politically connected that they could do a lot of damage to civil liberties and the world economy on the way down. It would therefore be a good thing if competitors hastened their demise.

They go on to outline that Hollywood's behavior is like that of a wounded animal, and that supplanting the current media super-giant corporations may be the investment choice of the future. But not only is there basic financial cause for alternative entertainment formats to start circling like ravens, but also concern that the wounded animal may damage the economy, and society/humanitarian interests in it's angst. So not only is there meat to be had, but an open encouragement for entrepreneurs to be aggressive in bringing the beast down quickly before it F's up the world.



On Reddit now, there's a subforum called Kill Hollywood. And already some early talks on some ideas of both actively pursuing the creation of legislation which would protect people against the neverending barrage of SOPA's & PIPA's... but also on trying to directly harm hollywood by way of concentrated boycotts. Sort of a shot across the bow of the media industry, and a reminder of who ultimately signs their paychecks (you know, the people they want to sue). One such proposal being the idea of a "Black March" (sort of a spinoff of the Black Friday nickname for the internet blackout on the 18th of Jan to protest sopa/pipa). Black March is proposed as a month of people not using netflix, itunes, going to movies, or turning on their tv. I find it unlikely that such a boycott would be successful, but I'm game... hey i'll get to see sunlight, get some exercise, and maybe figure out what my neighbors look like, it might be fun

[TheZookie007]

Thanks for that post, Bad Kitty. I am in agreement with just about everything you have to say on this topic.

[rtpoe]

It might be harder to despise SOPA/PIPA et al. if the big media conglomerates actually bothered to pay the artists whose work they "own"....

[TheZookie007]

Breaking news:

"Google Defends Hotfile (and Megaupload) in Court"

Google has filed a brief at a federal court in Florida defending the file-hosting site Hotfile in its case against the MPAA. The search giant accuses the movie companies of misleading the court and argues that Hotfile is protected under the DMCA's safe harbor. Indirectly, Google is also refuting claims being made by the US government in the criminal case against Megaupload.

In February 2011, the MPAA announced a lawsuit against Hotfile, one of the Internet’s most popular cyberlocker services.

The site’s popularity is “a direct result of the massive digital theft that Hotfile promotes,” the movie industry group said.

Two weeks ago the movie studios asked the court to issue a summary judgment against Hotfile and shut the site down. The MPAA argues that Hotfile is a piracy haven that should not be eligible for DMCA safe harbor protection.

This request didn’t go unnoticed by Google, who have now filed an amicus brief in support of the file-hosting site. According to Google, the movie studios are misleading the court by wrongfully suggesting that Hotfile is not protected by the DMCA.

What makes this even more interesting is that many of the arguments made by Google are also relevant to the criminal indictment against Megaupload.

In their brief, Google points out that YouTube, [the Social Network], Twitter, and Wikipedia are able to thrive because they are protected by the DMCA. But, if the MPAA has its way, these and other services will be in serious trouble.

“Without the protections afforded by the safe harbors, those services might have been forced to fundamentally alter their operations or might never have launched in the first place,” Google writes in the brief.

The MPAA has argued that Hotfile has no right to exist because it’s used predominantly for copyright-infringing purposes. Google replies to this by arguing that it’s irrelevant how many infringements there are. Under the DMCA it would only be problematic if Hotfile is aware of each and every individual pirated file on its systems.

“The case-law uniformly rejects efforts to deprive service providers of the safe harbor based on generalized awareness that unspecified (or even ‘rampant’) infringement is occurring on their services,” Google writes.

Google continues to say that the DMCA specifically states that service providers such as Hotfile can’t lose their safe harbor protection because they refuse to filter content upon request from the movie companies.

“It guards against any claim that a service provider loses the safe harbor by failing to ‘adopt specific filtering technology’ or any other technique suggested by copyright owners for affirmatively seeking out possible infringement occurring on its service.”

Google stresses that the burden to report and identify pirated material lies with the copyright holder, not Hotfile, and suggests that the MPAA tried to mislead the court to believe otherwise.

“The Court should not be misled. It should resist any effort to shift the investigatory burden that Congress deliberately allocated to copyright owners or to impose on Hotfile policing obligations of which it is specifically relieved by the DMCA,” Google writes....

[Bad Kitty]

yeah, I'm gonna have to stop thinking of google as one of the evil empires.

maybe a sort of quasi-evil empire, a diet coke of evil empires, just one calorie, not evil enough...

[Palomine]

Update: Fileserve and Wupload are two more of the commonly-used file hosts who have just discontinued file sharing as Filesonic did after Megaupload was shut down. I.e.: only the uploader can DL a file, not a third party... so these sites are useful now only for personal backup, not for transferring data.

This whole thing (the fallout after the Megauplolad closure) reminds me a lot of how most all ISPs suddenly stopped hosting binaries newsgroups after Andrew Cuomo put his nose into it when he was NYS Attorney General.

The list of usable/reliable filehosts continues to get smaller and smaller. I've been compiling a revised list have posted it below:


Now only allow personal cloud storage (no sharing between parties):

Filesonic
Wupload
Fileserve
Downupload

And the following hosts don't presently/no longer work in the U.S.:

Hellshare
Hitfile
Turbobit
Unibytes
Ultrafiles (*never* has an available free DL server... seems to just be a scam to sell access subscriptions)

Still working as of early April, 2012:

Bitshare, Cramit.in, Crocko (sometimes fails), Depositfiles, Extabit (always very slow), FiberUpload, Filefactory (often no available servers), Fileking, Filejungle, Filepost, Gigapeta (slow and flaky), Hotfile, Leitbit (awful retention), Mediafire, Oron, Netload (uselessly slow), RapidGator, Share-online, Uploaded.to (used to not be available in the US, but has been recently), Uploading.