MediaFire CEO: We Don't Depend On Piracy 185
New submitter libertyernie writes "Although FileSonic has disabled sharing and Uploaded.to has blocked access to the U.S., the CEO of Texas-based MediaFire is not concerned about government action against his company. 'We don't have a business built on copyright infringement,' says Derek Labian. 'Like many other cloud-based sharing services like Box.net and Dropbox, we're a legitimate business targeting professionals.'"
Maybe Should Have Went with "No Statement" (Score:5, Insightful)
"We try to steer clear of things that would attract scrutiny," Labian said. "If people are pirating on our service, we don’t want those people to use it."
So what you're openly admitting is that you just don't know the extent of piracy on your service? I probably would have said "no comment" rather than risk the Eye of Sauron ... er RIAA/MPAA's gaze. From what I gather, it could 0% it could be 100% of your service based on pirates sharing files with each other but since you don't know it's okay? Unless you have some sort of Youtube-like fingerprinting going on, I'd just keep your mouth shut.
Another reason Labian said he wasn’t worried about the government stepping in is because the company maintains a "good relationship" with various government bodies, including "Homeland Security, ICE, and the FBI."
Right but those are just the enforcers, your real problem is the MPAA and unless you're paying elected officials more than they are you could be next.
Re:Maybe Should Have Went with "No Statement" (Score:5, Insightful)
So what you're openly admitting is that you just don't know the extent of piracy on your service?
Yes, so they can claim common carrier status... seems pretty smart to me. If you have any idea at all, you are screwed.
Right but those are just the enforcers, your real problem is the MPAA
As long as they respond to take-down notices and do not ACTIVELY seek traffic based on piracy as MegaUpload did (judging by emails they had to turn over) they, and companies like DropBox, should be fine.
Blocked Access to the US (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Maybe Should Have Went with "No Statement" (Score:2, Insightful)
All we can say for certain is that every pirate starts with Google.
Also I'm bored with all this MPAA/RIAA demonising. It's obvious that all this is just an excuse for top-down control of the Internet, one of many recent laws designed to control the people. Your "real problem" starts when you do things which increase freedom for others and your "real problem" ends when you do as you're told. This changes according as the pressure from people interested in preserving freedoms for the common man, whether that's libertarians or trade unionists - since the '80s the steady flow of neocon propaganda plus distraction technology has minimised this pressure. The UK is more thatcherite than Thatcher; the US more reaganite than Reagan - remember, individualism always leads to consolidation of power which leads to removal of assistance and restriction of freedom.
we're a legitimate business targeting professional (Score:5, Insightful)
"I'm a legitimate businessman." (Score:5, Insightful)
Alarms always go off when someone tells me that.
Similarly, different kinds of alarms that go off when some one says, "I'm not a slut."
Re:Gotta love it when.... (Score:2, Insightful)
That's what happens when poorly drafted, overly-broad, draconian laws are written.
"We don't do X, but we didn't think our competitor, Y, did either, and they completely disappeared from existance before so much as a single hearing had taken place, so we'd better scale back anything that we think might even *possibly*, in the worst light, be construed as anything kinda sorta like X!"