File Sharing In the Post MegaUpload Era 334
An anonymous reader writes "This report looks at file sharing in the post MegaUpload era. The main finding — file sharing did not go away. It did not even decrease much in North America. Mainly, file sharing became staggeringly less efficient. Instead of terabytes of North America MegaUpload traffic going to U.S. servers, most file sharing traffic now comes from Europe over far more expensive transatlantic links."
What did you expect? (Score:5, Informative)
It's not like the people who've been pirating for the last ten years are just going to say to themselves "Hey, let's go back to the way it was in the 90's and forget that we've gotten used to not paying for our movies and getting them instantly!" just because of some raid. And as long as there are pirates sailing the high seas, *someone* will be there to sell them boats.
People have been pirating stuff (Score:5, Informative)
on computers since there were computers, 1 website is not going to stop them, all websites will not stop them, what will stop them is a change in how things are done.
If people are "too cheap" to buy your product maybe your product is too expensive.
If people are getting pirate copies of your software to avoid the iron fisted DRM bullshit, well maybe get rid of your DRM bullshit.
If people are downloading your movie to watch once then never again maybe you should make it easier for people to watch.
just a thought that no one making this shit wants to hear
Re:Blame Napster (Score:2, Informative)
It's only a matter of time until someone develops an Android or jailbroken iOS app that allows true peer to peer piracy over bluetooth or wifi. You'd set it up to share what you want, and to search for things you're looking for. If you were friendly, you could even set it up to look for things other people you see for x amount of time are looking for. Walking on the street? Riding in a bus? File sharing everywhere you go.
Didn't Zune have a feature that did bluetooth or WiFi song sharing called 'squirt' (or 'squirting')?
Re:Blame Napster (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Movie budgets (Score:4, Informative)
That isn't a good comparison if you are trying to make your point.
Using your numbers Memento had an 8 times return on investment and Inception only had a 5.16 times return on investment. Memento was the more profitable movie from an investment standpoint.
Re:Blame Napster (Score:4, Informative)
On a side note I am curious how you get a hold of the torrent without a link and only a magnet file?
While it can contain a link to a tracker, most magnet links just contain a hash of the .torrent file and use the DHT system. Your torrent client would look up the hash in the DHT and find a user who is currently downloading or seeding the file. It then downloads the .torrent file from them.
Are sites containing strictly Magnet URIs, which I assume provide no resources for locating the tracker nor piers that would provide file, illegal or legal in the US?
It depends on how much hand-waving and bribing the MAFIAA do. Several years ago I would say that they would probably be legal, since you're not getting the file from them and the "link" to the files is very weak. Nowadays it really doesn't matter, our due process doesn't apply as long as the politicians and prosecutors are sufficiently bribed. They'll just seize your domain, block your donations, and threaten/raid your web hosts without judicial approval.
Re:Blame Napster (Score:5, Informative)
Actually you have to set a limit somewhere. Moving from the file outwards, the first steps are now clear:
1) Hosting the file: BAD
2) Linking to the file: BAD
3) Running a portal with links to files: BAD
4) Linking to a portal with links to files: BAD
5) Running a portal with links to trackers that links to pieces of the files: BAD (mostly)
6) Linking to a portal with links to trackers that links to pieces of the files: Still okay
7) Running a portal with links to a hash values (magnet links): Still okay
8) Linking to a portal with links to a hash values (magnet links): Still okay
The magnet links are a in a grey zone. You can argue that a link to a hash value is useless without third party resources, and thus that it in itself in no way can be said to be illegal in itself.