An economics, investment, trading and policy blog with a focus on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). We seek the truth, avoid the mainstream and are virulently anti-neoliberalism.
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Thursday, January 19, 2012
"FBI shuts down Megaupload, Anonymous shuts down FBI"
Am I wrong in seeing that retaliation as like taking icepicks to icebergs? Satisfying, but to make a real difference you need to change the whole climate.
Are these activists really that concerned with their ability to download artistic corporate content that they go to these extremes?
Is all of this about being able to download the movie "Ironman" for free? Or Katy Perry's or Rihanna's latest trash/garbage over-produced "music"?
This corporate trash "pop culture" art/media is not worth it.
What do they want to mega upload that the FBI is even interested?
I sense some hypocrisy here where they take an anti corporate stance but then want to download all sorts of corporate content for free... they should just say the hell with corporate content.
Matt, I don't even pretend to understand the mindset. But knowing some "digital people," they "think different." Maybe some of the younger folks here can explain it to us.
One thing that goes into it, I know, is that these folks use a huge amount of digital content, way beyond what they could afford to pay for, and the ones who can afford it see the prices wrt corp margins and salaries as a rip-off. They are willing to pay what they see is fair price for content and software, but they refuse to support what they see as a corrupt system gouging customers. Many of these folks are actually content or software producers themselves, so you would think that they would be on the other side of this, but they are not.
No, this is NOT about an anti-corporate agenda, this was a commercial operation that made $175 million in profits from selling subscriptions and advertising.
It was a service like Dropbox or I-Cloud with free-mium service. They allowed their users to upload a file and store it so they could access the file anywhere. It allowed people to make the files publicly available to their friends or followers from anywhere. For more storage or faster service users paid a subscription fee for the service. The problem was that MegaUpload didn't play by the USA rules where the service provider is supposed to take down content when their users were "accused" of violating US law -- the users were supposed to remove their own content when accused. Keep in mind the government could have black-holed the IP address and made the servers in accessible to anyone in the United States, so this wasn't about illegal downloading. They could have stopped that with the flip of a switch. This was an exercise to flex US muscles. They got a nation, New Zealand, typically hostile toward US policy to submit to US financial threats and they want the world to see it. A variety of companies hide out in far away places, like New Zealand, in hopes they are out of Uncle Sam's reach. But they have no idea the beast they are dealing with. All citizens of all countries in the world must adhere to the laws passed by the US Congress and respect same concept of intellectual property and software patents promoted by US companies or risk isolation. Perfect example of why we need alternatives to the US dollar as a reserve currency to stop the US from forcing nations and people around the world into adopting their warped notion of property rights. Keep in mind this is the same country that allowed Monsanto to patent the the 200,000 genes in rice that farmers have grown for thousands of years because US scientists "discovered" the genes in the rice. Now they can demand royalties from any victim that uses their discovery. The notion of what is and isn't in the public domain isn't as cut and dry as the MPAA or Microsoft would like to make it. If I remember correctly the entire concept of Microsoft windows, (Microsoft is one of the most belligerent advocates of "IP") stole their primary product from Apple who stole it from Xerox who stole it from DOD. This shutdown of a website event was another skermish in a battle that is part of the war on how information and ideas will be controlled in the futute.
Thanks for the elucidation, TB. I don't see how the US is going to prevail in this sort of behavior over property rights other than by intimidation and repression that provokes a global backlash. It's not a generational war that the old guard can hope to win, although they may gain a few years more. But the handwriting is on the wall now. All that remains is checkmate.
I don't think the US will prevail either, I don't know how the business model is going to work or look for companies peddling ideas and content in the future -- I know some users are free loading on content producers and I know some of the content companies are stealing ideas and acting as pirates holding ideas for ransom. The stakes are high and we need to compensate people that genuinely create without allowing the companies to enslave the masses. Lawrence Lessig is to IP and Hackers what Mosler is MMT. A real master of the ideas. He has worked out some of the angles creatively. Yet another area our leaders desperately need to learn about in order to legislate.
TB, anecdotal evidence suggests that perception is key. If people think that they are being ripped off, they will appropriate. I, they think the deal is fair, they will pony up.
The data cited in this regard is the payment-piracy pattern for music CDs v. movie DVDs. There is less piracy of DVDs than CDs, and the explanation I've seen is perceptions about pricing.
People studying this are recommending appropriate pricing, since there is no effective way to limit piracy. There are just too many options and work arounds.
Am I wrong in seeing that retaliation as like taking icepicks to icebergs? Satisfying, but to make a real difference you need to change the whole climate.
ReplyDelete@ geerussell
ReplyDeleteStreet theater morphed into cyber theater. This is a PR game for hearts and minds using asymmetrical tactics.
Rude.
ReplyDelete"I will cut you."
http://youtu.be/jZkdcYlOn5M
Tom,
ReplyDeleteAre these activists really that concerned with their ability to download artistic corporate content that they go to these extremes?
Is all of this about being able to download the movie "Ironman" for free? Or Katy Perry's or Rihanna's latest trash/garbage over-produced "music"?
This corporate trash "pop culture" art/media is not worth it.
What do they want to mega upload that the FBI is even interested?
I sense some hypocrisy here where they take an anti corporate stance but then want to download all sorts of corporate content for free... they should just say the hell with corporate content.
Resp,
Matt, I don't even pretend to understand the mindset. But knowing some "digital people," they "think different." Maybe some of the younger folks here can explain it to us.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that goes into it, I know, is that these folks use a huge amount of digital content, way beyond what they could afford to pay for, and the ones who can afford it see the prices wrt corp margins and salaries as a rip-off. They are willing to pay what they see is fair price for content and software, but they refuse to support what they see as a corrupt system gouging customers. Many of these folks are actually content or software producers themselves, so you would think that they would be on the other side of this, but they are not.
No, this is NOT about an anti-corporate agenda, this was a commercial operation that made $175 million in profits from selling subscriptions and advertising.
ReplyDeleteBeo,
ReplyDeleteWere they (megauploads) providing access to copyrighted materials for a "subscription" without paying the owners of the materials?
That sounds wrong if so....
Resp,
It was a service like Dropbox or I-Cloud with free-mium service. They allowed their users to upload a file and store it so they could access the file anywhere. It allowed people to make the files publicly available to their friends or followers from anywhere. For more storage or faster service users paid a subscription fee for the service. The problem was that MegaUpload didn't play by the USA rules where the service provider is supposed to take down content when their users were "accused" of violating US law -- the users were supposed to remove their own content when accused. Keep in mind the government could have black-holed the IP address and made the servers in accessible to anyone in the United States, so this wasn't about illegal downloading. They could have stopped that with the flip of a switch. This was an exercise to flex US muscles. They got a nation, New Zealand, typically hostile toward US policy to submit to US financial threats and they want the world to see it.
ReplyDeleteA variety of companies hide out in far away places, like New Zealand, in hopes they are out of Uncle Sam's reach. But they have no idea the beast they are dealing with. All citizens of all countries in the world must adhere to the laws passed by the US Congress and respect same concept of intellectual property and software patents promoted by US companies or risk isolation. Perfect example of why we need alternatives to the US dollar as a reserve currency to stop the US from forcing nations and people around the world into adopting their warped notion of property rights. Keep in mind this is the same country that allowed Monsanto to patent the the 200,000 genes in rice that farmers have grown for thousands of years because US scientists "discovered" the genes in the rice. Now they can demand royalties from any victim that uses their discovery. The notion of what is and isn't in the public domain isn't as cut and dry as the MPAA or Microsoft would like to make it. If I remember correctly the entire concept of Microsoft windows, (Microsoft is one of the most belligerent advocates of "IP") stole their primary product from Apple who stole it from Xerox who stole it from DOD. This shutdown of a website event was another skermish in a battle that is part of the war on how information and ideas will be controlled in the futute.
Thanks for the elucidation, TB. I don't see how the US is going to prevail in this sort of behavior over property rights other than by intimidation and repression that provokes a global backlash. It's not a generational war that the old guard can hope to win, although they may gain a few years more. But the handwriting is on the wall now. All that remains is checkmate.
ReplyDeleteTB,
ReplyDeleteThanks for these comments...
Resp,
I don't think the US will prevail either, I don't know how the business model is going to work or look for companies peddling ideas and content in the future -- I know some users are free loading on content producers and I know some of the content companies are stealing ideas and acting as pirates holding ideas for ransom. The stakes are high and we need to compensate people that genuinely create without allowing the companies to enslave the masses. Lawrence Lessig is to IP and Hackers what Mosler is MMT. A real master of the ideas. He has worked out some of the angles creatively. Yet another area our leaders desperately need to learn about in order to legislate.
ReplyDeleteTB, anecdotal evidence suggests that perception is key. If people think that they are being ripped off, they will appropriate. I, they think the deal is fair, they will pony up.
ReplyDeleteThe data cited in this regard is the payment-piracy pattern for music CDs v. movie DVDs. There is less piracy of DVDs than CDs, and the explanation I've seen is perceptions about pricing.
People studying this are recommending appropriate pricing, since there is no effective way to limit piracy. There are just too many options and work arounds.