The US media industries along with their cronies in the United States Federal Government are no longer fighting with the weight of law against the process of sharing culture… they are using fear based tactics that have no legal grounds and are designed entirely to scare filesharers and other “Cyberlockers” into submitting to their will.
This is NOT the time for us to give into the fear-based tactics of the United States. It just so happens the United States DOESN’T rule the rest of the world, and we do not have to stand by as our governments sell their souls to protect the interest of the school yard bully. Maybe it was because I was raised in the United States, and I don’t know what you are taught, but I was always taught to stand up for yourself to the bullies. We must not let them believe (wrongly) that their tactics have any impact on us. Fuck those guys. What’s worse, the websites like FileSonic and the other websites that are now limiting how their services can be used… they are telling the industry and governments “hey, it doesn’t matter if you act within the law or not, as long as you can be scary about it, we will bend to your will”.
FileSonic and the other websites who are backing down are stabbing their customers and the movement in the back. They are putting the fundamental freedoms that we get to enjoy both online and offline in jeapordy by allowing fear, instead of actual law, guide their judgements. When the industries go to the FBI or Congress or the President and say “Hey, let’s take down Falkvinge.net for inspiring people to share culture and the embrace freedom” when the question of legality comes up, the response can now be “it doesn’t matter if it’s legal or not… by forcibly taking down Falkvinge we will scare other websites into shutting down too… and Falkvinge will be forced into an expensive legal battle if he wants his site to remain open”.
I know that there is a trend in my posts to talk about terrorism, I use it as a way to relate the battle we are fighting now into terms that more average people can understand. This time, however, the battle is against terrorism. The United States Federal Government is acting against the interests of it’s own people and the world, their actions are to adjust policy abroad by using these scary “Shock and Awe” tactics against those that oppose them. It’s not just me who believes this, TUEBL and TorMovies has made me “pen pals” with a few people within the movie industry and publishing industry, and one of the executives that I have been talking to had this to say about Megaupload:
It’s funny, because Megaupload give rightsholders the ability to remove files infringing their copyright directly – I don’t think it’s about how a site is run, but the scale of it. However, questions regarding the extent to which this tool was effective have been around for a while (reiterated in thisSlashgear article): even though they provided this tool, the number of files shared on Megaupload was staggering, and I don’t really think it’s right that the onus should be on the rightsowner to find all their files and have them removed. I think the Mega song was probably the last straw, despite what they say about the investigation having gone on for two years and the raid being planned weeks ago.
I hope my quoting her will not impact our ability to keep an open dialogue because her industry insights are a valuable asset to me and while she believes in copyright, and the enforcement of copyright, she always keeps the conversation friendly. As you can see, even executives within the media industries (not music in this case) believe that this was an act of power, not law.
Today is not the day that we should be retreating, today is the day that we march (at least metaphorically) on the evil media industry. We should be opening MORE cyberlockers, we should be opening MORE torrent sites, we should be sharing MORE content. Not less. We cannot let them win and as Rick stated on TorrentFreak it’s time we go on the offensive. He was speaking in a legal sense, but I am speaking in an activist sense.
First, go after companies that stab us in the back. I cannot legally encourage a DDoS or any tactic, but FileSonic needs to be taken down. It needs to be clear that while we will not take a “your either with us or against us stance” we will take a “if you try to throw us under a bus… we are going to take you with us” stance. We need to stop spending money on the content industry. Most of the people reading this blog are the people who put the most money into the media industry. We watch movies at theatres, we buy the CD, we buy the bands merchandise, we put money into the industry. We must STOP.
Are you a cyberlocker who want’s to do the right thing but you have other responsibilities and do not want to take the legal risk? Contact [email protected] or [email protected] and I would be willing to take ownership and full legal responsibility for your website. I would operate it in a way that is respectful to the way that you had run the site, and it allows you to not screw over your users.
This is now a war on culture (and I don’t mean Christmas), we must place economic sanctions (by not permitting their sites to operate, and by boycotting products) on those profiting from the abuse of the internet. We must strike and make as much non-violent damage we can to their industry as possible. I sound like a vigilante crazy guy? Good. Am I mad bro? Damn right I am mad… you should be too. Am I letting my emotions dictate my words and actions? No. I am just fighting for justice and the law. I am fighting for what is MORALLY right and I will never give up moral law for an unjust national law.
I would like to see someone create an open source cyber locker web site that transacts in Bitcoins. Or how about an image file with simple configuration instructions that anyone could throw up on Amazon AWS or a similar virtual hosting service?
For every “MegaUpload” site that gets litigated into oblivion we need 100 “MicroUpload” sites to take its place. The case against the Mega empire is big and splashy and supposed to inspire fear. I hope Mr. Dotcom has a good legal team and wins in court. However, I believe a large collection of small sites, distributed around the world that can go online overnight, and disappear equally fast, present a nightmare scenario for the copyright monopoly and their government stooges. paul
“I hope Mr. Dotcom has a good legal team …”
LOL. Have you heard, yet? He has even been deprived of that. http://torrentfreak.com/megauploads-top-lawyer-outside-pressure-120123/
At least for now he has been deprived of one of the best, and no doubt any top lawyer who dares to take his case will face similar pressure.
To watch the giants folding under pressure has been massively disappointing. Of course they are just trying to protect themselves, but to see almost no fight at all is crushing, which is of course precisely the intention. We are supposed to be afraid.
But we should be more afraid of losing the free internet than of the consequences of fighting for it.
The events of the past week have served the purpose of proving beyond all doubt that we are better off not relying on the big players to fight our battles…. and again that it is better to have thousands of small players than one giant. … AND that our best strategy is to fight their attempts to scare, demoralize, and disperse us.
Even if we cannot change the powers that be, we can at the very least refuse to bow to them.
“….We watch movies at theatres, we buy the CD, we buy the bands merchandise, we put money into the industry. We must STOP.”
We need to stop now, but we also need to use the next few weeks to spread the word to those who don’t frequent blogs like these, and we need to prepare for March… #BlackMarch.
Travis – My thoughts exactly. The good news is, Y Combinator may even be willing to fund such a business venture. However, I feel it is important that such a battle for our rights and freedoms takes place where the source of these threats lies: here in the USA!
http://blog.greenpirate.org/y-combinator-wants-to-fund-startups-who-compete-with-hollywood/
Seems it took the people about… let’s say half a day to find other ways to share. Mark it the 19.
http://www.internetobservatory.net/europe/thelastmonth/line/#.Tx5ZGKVSS5I
Man this feels weird. It’s like getting a secred note from a friend and then making sure to keep it out of sight and not locking at it and only showing it to some people (who ask for it/ have permission) and then going to jail for it. Man, internet is crasy.
Great and powerful words:
“I would be willing to take ownership and full legal responsibility for your website.”
Suffering and pain to protect freedom and human decency, has always, always been necessary. And many have paid the ultimate price for whatever freedom we have today.
To stand on the barricades and risk pain to protect freedom is the most beautiful thing there is.
When this happens “en masse” – God Help the establishment! The historical examples are numerous and very convincing…
The military Shock and Awe doctrine (another name for massive bullying):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shock_and_Awe
Filesonic has a similar business model to Megaupload.
Both services advertise on the same warez forums, and if MU is breaking the law, Filesonic is equally guilty.
And both services had a reward program for uploaders.
While I personally think that a DDoS against FileSonic may be a bit overkill, I AM of the opinion that people should consider removing them from their ad-blocker’s whitelist and possibly marking them as Untrusted in NoScript, Cookie Monster, et-cetera…
[…] http://falkvinge.net/2012/01/24/how-filesonic-just-stabbed-us-in-the-back/ […]
“This is NOT the time for us to give into the fear-based tactics of the United States. It just so happens the United States DOESN’T rule the rest of the world,”
In future articles, can you use the term, “United States GOVERNMENT” or “U.S. Government” or something similar? I am a U.S. citizen and most definitely did NOT vote for this, nor do I condone it.
Secondly I have to challenge your charge to stop paying for media content. The flaw with our media-giant-dominated system is that the wrong people/companies get rewarded for someone else’s work/creativity. I am a strong advocate of buying the content you actually like. For artists who publish and distribute their own content, please, PLEASE: if you like it, buy it. For artists who use a major record company or studio, I challenge you to find and pay the artists directly. As in, torrent the albums, and send the artist a few bucks via PayPal or similar. (Granted, for the less-well-known artists I enjoy, this is a lot easier).
The reason piracy exists is general disallusionment with large studios who screw end-users on the front end with exorbidant prices for largely unoriginal content, and then again from behind with completely unreasonable restrictions on how we can view said content.
Bless the interenet for making it easier to self-publish. The giants will fall when more artists start realizing they can easily distribute globally and STILL make more without the major labels.