New Zealand based Internet entrepreneur, Kim Dotcom was arrested last week at his posh down under mansion. This action follows the seizure of his domain, Megaupload.com. For those unaware Megaupload was the worlds largest file sharing website. It specialized in fast easy access to software, most of which was pirated.
Great controversy travels across the Internet these days over censorship. Legislation in countries around the globe has brought forth the issue of “governing” the net. Last week Google, Wikipedia and a thousand other sites staged a semi-lockout protest to such regulation.
The question is not whether or not software, music and video piracy should be allowed to continue. We all know that downloading software that is under copyright protection is wrong. And in the case of Megaupload, where the software in question is actually placed on servers by the principals, the only solution is to shut down the site.
But where does that leave Rapidshare, Hotfiles, or even Flickr? These are all file sharing sites. The majority of the content of which is legitimate. Rapidshare is famous for shutting down any file that it receives a complaint about. Still they charge 5 a month for fast downloads knowing full well that the majority of their paid customers are after pirated files.
Let’s not leave out the infamous Pirate Bay. Pirate Bay facilitates downloads of torrents. While not directly hosting pirated files, the site does make software piracy extremely easy to spread. Unlike Megaupload, The Pirate Bay has not reaped millions for its owners. In fact it has kept them bankrupt.
The plan behind regulation of pirated file sharing sites is to empower government to shut down any site offering stolen goods as well as any site leading to and promoting such downloading. So, if Google lists a Rapidshare file page with an illegal Windows 7 download on it, various governments would be empowered to shut down all of Google. The situation is just that extreme.
Another popular regulatory idea is to limit the public’s access to the Internet by using a tier system. This would mean that unless one was granted higher level access they could only see a limited portion of the net. This is the current system in Communist China. Shutting down websites that dance near the area of piracy without actually selling the goods is a dangerous path to take. Yes, Megaupload was out of control and the courts shut down the site. This is the way such things are supposed to work. But giving blanket authority to any agency to shut down an information website represents too great a risk to freedom.
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