Upto 50 million people who used Megaupload.com for legitimate reasons could have all their data wiped by Thursday 2nd February because hosting companies Carpathia and Cogent Communications have not received payment because all the assets of Megaupload.com have been frozen.
This, of course was caused by the US government being quick to close down a site when it has millions of legitimate users, these people do not matter to the FBI and US law enforcement agencies, all they are concerned about is keeping the movie, music and TV companies happy!
This sort of action is exactly why so many people on the websphere took part in the PIPA/SOPA strike two weeks ago, why should people who do not use Megaupload.com for sharing copyrighted materials be punished? It’s kinda odd to store your vital files on a ‘digital locker’ website without backup’s elsewhere; backing up your data in at least two locations is essential, but that’s beside the point, people will lose data because of the non forward-thinking attitude of the FBI!
While we are on the subject of hosting copyrighted files illegally, surely Carpathia Hosting and Cogent Communications Group should be held liable as well? I refuse to believe they were unaware of the type of files that were being stored, it’s not like Megaupload’s business model was a secret, most people on the web have either downloaded or streamed copyrighted media from the site! Megaupload have been made a scapegoat for the massive trade in copyrighted materials on the Internet; and despite what the FBI claim was a hit to take attention away from the SOPA Strike!
Governments can claim that shutting down Megaupload is a big strike against online piracy but the people that build up these networks are always one step ahead. take a look at thepiratebay.org, the site’s owners are in jail, yet the site continues unhindered. And for the claims that Megaupload.com has cost the movie and music industries 500 million dollars in lost revenue, I call bullshit, the people that download copyrighted materials from the Internet will never pay the extortionate cost of buying and DVD, Bluray, CD or paying cable TV bills. Close one site down and they’ll simply use another site, governments are deluded if they think they can eliminate piracy!