Kim Dotcom: US Govt Is Protecting An Outdated Monopolistic Business Model
Here’s a key excerpt from this very interesting article:
Dotcom told us that in recent years Megaupload had spent millions of dollars seeking out the very best legal advice and the conclusions drawn were clear – providing the site did its part in tackling infringement it would be protected under the DMCA and could not be held liable for the actions of its users.
Towards achieving this protection, Dotcom told us that the company had developed relationships with 180 takedown partners – companies authorized to directly remove infringing links from Megaupload’s systems – and between them they had taken down in excess of 15 million links. Those companies included the major studios of the MPAA who, incidentally, in 7 years of the company’s existence had never tried to sue Megaupload for copyright infringement.
On the advice of Megaupload’s legal team, the company believed it had the same rights as YouTube in its case against entertainment giant Viacom. In that 2010 case U.S. District Judge Louis L. Stanton said service providers can not be held liable for infringement as long as they remove links upon copyright holder request – even if the provider knows that parts of their service are being used to host illicit content.
“[YouTube] won their lawsuit and I’m sitting in jail, my house is being raided, all my assets are frozen without a trial, without a hearing. This is completely insane, is what it is,” said Dotcom of his predicament.
[…]
“If you read the indictment and if you hear what the Prosecution has said in court, at least $500 million of damage were just music files and just within a two-week time period. So they are actually talking about $13 billion US damage within a year just for music downloads. The entire US music industry is less than $20 billion,” he explained.
The Pirate Bay Press Release On SOPA: We Are The New Hollywood | Techdirt
From The Pirate Bay’s SOPA official press release:
[…] the whole basis of this industry, that today is screaming about losing control over immaterial rights, is that they circumvented immaterial rights. They copied (or put in their terminology: “stole”) other peoples creative works, without paying for it. They did it in order to make a huge profit. Today, they’re all successful and most of the studios are on the Fortune 500 list of the richest companies in the world. Congratulations - it’s all based on being able to re-use other peoples creative works. And today they hold the rights to what other people create. If you want to get something released, you have to abide to their rules. The ones they created after circumventing other peoples rules.
The reason they are always complainting about “pirates” today is simple. We’ve done what they did. We circumvented the rules they created and created our own. We crushed their monopoly by giving people something more efficient.
[…]
SOPA can’t do anything to stop TPB. Worst case we’ll change top level domain from our current .org to one of the hundreds of other names that we already also use. In countries where TPB is blocked, China and Saudi Arabia springs to mind, they block hundreds of our domain names. And did it work? Not really.
Direct link to the full press release, here.
Stop the Internet Blacklist Legislation
January 18th. Tomorrow, I will be silent across all web sites and social media accounts in support of the SOPA / PIPA blackout. I will not be alone in this, silently protesting alongside the likes of Reddit, Wikipedia, Google, Wordpress, Mozilla, and thousands of other websites and internet based companies.
I encourage all others to do the same. We need to ensure that those representing us in the government know that we do not support the passing of laws that will stifle and break the Internet as we know it. Please help educate your friends and family who may not be aware of the consequences that SOPA, PIPA, and similar bills would have on our open Internet.
Please click this link and enter your zip code to quickly and easily be connected to your local representatives. There is a form letter prepared for you, or you can change it to your own words. Phone numbers are even prepared for you if you prefer to call.
Google will join SOPA / PIPA protest. Using their popular home page as a bearer of bad news, Google will join in the protests along side Wikipedia, Reddit and thousands of other websites tomorrow, January 18th. While Google will not be performing a full blackout like many others, they will be using their home page to protest the proposed bills.
Google will Protest SOPA Using Popular Home Page (via censorus)
Stopped they must be; on this all depends. Reddit announces a site-wide blackout planned for January 18th to raise awareness of the dangers that the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA, in the House) and Protect IP Act (PIPA, in the Senate) pose on the Internet as Americans know it.
We’re as addicted to reddit as the rest of you. Many of you stand with us against PIPA/SOPA, but we know support for a blackout isn’t unanimous. We’re not taking this action lightly. We wouldn’t do this if we didn’t believe this legislation and the forces behind it were a serious threat to reddit and the Internet as we know it. Blacking out reddit is a hard choice, but we feel focusing on a day of action is the best way we can amplify the voice of the community.
Here’s to hoping that other major online corportations, such as Google and Facebook, take note and promote awareness of these proposed bills.
