Just a few days ago, the entire internet united around the banner of fighting SOPA and PIPA and generated unheard of levels of consumer activism. This resulted in a barrage of petitions, phone calls, emails (even crashing the Senate website due to rampant demand) and that resulted in a dramatic turnaround in Congress. The few sponsors who remained, who had clearly been trying to shove the bills through without any notice, slunk off in defeat and vowed to “re-evaluate” their positions and “address the concerns” raised by the massive outpouring of public sentiment. It was a beautiful day for the internet, for free speech, and for consumers, and it was probably a miserable day for politicians, the government, and Hollywood.
That may well explain why they turned around not 24 hours later and shut down the biggest file transfer site on the net. Megaupload, run by the implausibly-named Kim Dotcom, earns millions from its file transfer business, and recently angered the RIAA by releasing an ad featuring several of the most popular musicians all supporting Megaupload. Of course, since the record labels totally own those people, they aren’t allowed to go off the reservation and express their own opinions (this is not entirely sarcasm – in a very real way, record labels market the personas of musicians and therefore claim the rights to their public interactions).
This claim now somewhat less true.
The shutdown has had major implications for other file hosting services, many of whom are scrambling to shut down their affiliate programs or even to turn off the spigot entirely, afraid of being next in the cross hairs of a Federal crackdown. Others are simply isolating US based IP addresses, highlighting the fragmentation that would be sure to result if already stringent intellectual property laws are tightened still further.
Megaupload isn’t going down without a fight, mind you; they’ve lawyered up and are seeking access to their assets to fuel the legal battle that’s sure to ensue. The company was pulling in millions and has the resources to fight this out; it remains to be seen if the Feds are willing to stomach another loss.
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