The Death of Megaupload is an Outrage

Earlier in the year a giant in the file hosting world was sadly shut down... we are of course talking about Megaupload, a home to many files some with unscrupulous content and others are just peoples work file like word docs. The closure of Megaupload left it's 150 million registered user in dismay and turmoil not knowing if there data was safe, also it is an estimated 500 million pounds in revenue will be lost because of the closure of this behemoth of a file sharing site. For many users of the site, megaupload has been a useful tool for storing files away from their machine and home just as a backup, so there is a place in the market for a new file hosting website. One piece of advise when setting up such a site, don't become so intrinsically associated with piracy, megaupload was renowned for hosting pirated material and with there built in media player it was clear what they were doing, but I take my hat off to them for lasting this long. It is a strange time in the world of freedom of speech and rebelling up against society and sticking it to the man, solely because of all the attempt t limit our basic rights on the internet by the american congress.

Bills such as the following have tried to limit what the public do on the internet:

• SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act)
• PIPA (Protect IP Act)

SOPA had it's own bill and when that fail to work the american congress went in to sneak mode and attached PIPA onto another bill, but the public prevailed and both have been stopped from coming into affect, basically what acts like PIPA and SOPA are trying to do are to stop piracy and clamp down on copy written material; this covers more than it may seem, this means that you can no longer cover a song from coldplay on your youtube channel because it is copy written to the label. This is extremely worrying because a big names like justin bieber got their brakes into show business by sing copy written songs and posting them on youtube

The death of megaupload is a one that many people will be affected by but it is a reminder to everyone that piracy is a serious thing and you will not be able to get away with it forever, megaupload was one of the corner stones of the piracy industry, now with megaupload gone there is a massive pair of shoes to be filled by another company. So if you are hoping to become a dot com millionaire try starting up a file hosting site and charge for premium accounts, the closure of megaupload was a monumentally big operation and repossessing vintage cars a multimillion pound mansion. With all the commotion about megaupload becoming a dead organisation people seem to forget that even if a big name such as megaupload does go down there will be hundreds of new site trying to get a piece of the action megaupload left behind. The internet is a place where knowledge is spread along with wealth and you cannot take down every site the has or links to pirated material, there's just not enough hours in the day, or days in a year to do so.

Megaupload may have had some pirated material circulating around it's site but it was not only used to host pirated material, many people just used it to host files so they could access them when away from their primary computer, it just happens that the majority of it's users had some bad intention for their account. While we are still talking about hosting pirated material, if you scanned through all of the dropbox accounts I guarantee you that there will be at least a hand full of people hosting so unsavoury material on there accounts. Why punish the majority of use who don't have bad intentions, I think that they should of isolated the accounts that did have the pirated material on them and contacted the owner of the account and took it from there. There was a good point that I heard from a youtube musician called 'Dan Bull' he hosted his album using megaupload and now with the death of his primary hosting option he will now have to look else where for hosting options. It is people like 'Dan Bull' who try a carve a career for themselves in this world but if all their tools are being taken away from them there is not much hope for them and their independent career. Many people have voiced their opinions on the situation of megaupload; a disappointing turn of events, 'The internet is not as free as it used to be', 'How can we truly express our selves when there is a threat of being shut down, switched off and people boxed in by the government' are just a few. The Governments of the world seem to be forgetting that if users of the internet want something so bad they will find away to get to it no matter what stands in their way, even in china where the access to the internet is monitored and restricted so intensely people have gotten around the firewalls and what not in their way to view the 'Banned content'.

It is a tragic thing to see governments of the world trying to mess with our human rights in indirect ways but still in ways that will dramatically effect us, the public will only stand for so much before a rebellion becomes the only option left to change how the country is run. Really does any want to live in a country that is run by a bunch of idiots that will sell out to the corporations before they even think about the people that put them into office, if any politician thinks they are better than the public they must be shot on the spot, for the sole reason that they public has a right to vote for who they think will run the country in the best way. If a politician thinks they are above the people they are out of touch and need a reality check; not every thing is as it seems, a man that may look like he lives on the streets might actually hold a degree in politics and he has just fallen on hard times, no one in politics or just in general should command respect. Respect is earned and in the publics eye you earn it by doing the best for them and not take away there basic right of freedom of speech and that is in jeopardy if the government starts restricting peoples access of what they can and cannot view on the internet.

The internet is a land where everyone is equal and there is no discrimination of whether you can view this and you can't view another thing, it would just be obserred if it was like that. The whole news industry would crumble if the government tried to interfere with what they do, everything that newspapers write are protected under the freedom of speech act so if newspapers are safe why aren't the majority of the country who use the internet? Even if some how it was in the countries best interest to censor content on the internet there still would be a up roar of people who don't like being told what they can and can't do on the internet and I am one of them.