RIP Megaupload
"I want to be like some terrorist, a socio-cultural terrorist. Radical and careless." _ Mehul Gohil, Farah Aideed Goes To The Gulf War
Amid all the noise surrounding SOPA and PIPA - a fresh attempt againt the current freedom enjoyed by internet users in the USA - many pundits had already predicted a worldwide detriment if the two bills were passed into law, hardly a surprise given the way that US foreign and economic policy seems to dictate that of the rest of the world, especially those of us in the Third World. Sure enough, the first casualty has faced the firing squad and its dismembered head is being displayed all over the internets, much akin to the infamous Osama slaying. Friends, Megaupload is no more!!
Yes, the Feds launched an indictment against owners and managers of the file-sharing site that we have come to use and love so much on various charges of copyright infringement that goes into the hundreds of millions of dollars. In addition, access to millions of links to files hosted by Megaupload is now impossible since it has been completely shut down. Of course, the pain and loss is being felt not only by American users but nearly the entire internet universe, including my very own virtual front door. I happened to use Megaupload exclusively to up my Mixcloud-hosted mixes along with other miscellaneous .rar files for private distribution. I now have to deal with re-upping around 5GB of files with the obvious time and money implications (this is Kenya, high-speed net at affordable prices are still something of a pipe dream, you know).
This murderous event is perhaps a foreshadow of the events to come if at all SOPA and PIPA are passed by the US legislative system. Perhaps a complete shut-down of other common file sharing sites: Rapidshare, Fileserve, Zshare or the increasingly popular late comer, Hulkshare? It could spell the end of YouTube, Vimeo and perhaps even the transformation of Facebook and Twitter to such levels of redundancy that the Chinese internet space is already used to.
Besides, the war on internet based piracy could present an interesting backlash against the spirit of American foreign policy. In Africa and other parts of the Third World, this war may rejuvenate traditional forms of piracy - physical bootlegging of CDs, DVDs, books etc - run by organised criminal enterprises, enterprises that have been proven to have links to terrorism, especially targeting America as opposed to the second degree bootlegging stemming from internet piracy itself (eg. that 50 bob movie guy you normally go to).
To some extent I have always considered Direct and P2P file-sharing a gift to the Third World, something like international donor funding only of the intellectual property kind. I mean, the way things are just do not support anything else!! Distribution of movies, books, films etc etc to Africa (and Kenya in particular) is currently pretty shitty as opposed to the vinyl 70s and 80s for example. physical distribution is expensive while internet-based distribution models such as iTunes requires retailers to own credit cards, while a majority of the population remains unbanked. Before the creators and distributors of intellectual property look for more innovative ways of marketing and selling their commodities to Africa (such as partnering with mobile money transfer systems such as M-Pesa) I do not see how the current status quo will fail to subsist.
This murderous event is perhaps a foreshadow of the events to come if at all SOPA and PIPA are passed by the US legislative system. Perhaps a complete shut-down of other common file sharing sites: Rapidshare, Fileserve, Zshare or the increasingly popular late comer, Hulkshare? It could spell the end of YouTube, Vimeo and perhaps even the transformation of Facebook and Twitter to such levels of redundancy that the Chinese internet space is already used to.
Besides, the war on internet based piracy could present an interesting backlash against the spirit of American foreign policy. In Africa and other parts of the Third World, this war may rejuvenate traditional forms of piracy - physical bootlegging of CDs, DVDs, books etc - run by organised criminal enterprises, enterprises that have been proven to have links to terrorism, especially targeting America as opposed to the second degree bootlegging stemming from internet piracy itself (eg. that 50 bob movie guy you normally go to).
To some extent I have always considered Direct and P2P file-sharing a gift to the Third World, something like international donor funding only of the intellectual property kind. I mean, the way things are just do not support anything else!! Distribution of movies, books, films etc etc to Africa (and Kenya in particular) is currently pretty shitty as opposed to the vinyl 70s and 80s for example. physical distribution is expensive while internet-based distribution models such as iTunes requires retailers to own credit cards, while a majority of the population remains unbanked. Before the creators and distributors of intellectual property look for more innovative ways of marketing and selling their commodities to Africa (such as partnering with mobile money transfer systems such as M-Pesa) I do not see how the current status quo will fail to subsist.
