Milovana.com

I know some other topics have discussed the disappearance of megaupload and some other file hosting sites. I thought you all might like to know that ifile.it was just served with court orders on 02/15/12 in the process of a major, worldwide crackdown on media piracy that's been going on for weeks. This one involves ebooks. I hope that it will not end up shutting down the site (I haven't noticed anything thus far). Take a look at the article I read today:

http://www.publishers.org/press/59/
Publishers Crack Down On Pirates
By Sandra Aistars -- An international alliance of 17 publishing companies, with support of Copyright Alliance member AAP, took legal action against two rogue websites peddling pirated e-books. The website operators, who went to great lengths to conceal their identities and whereabouts, earned an estimated $10.6 million annually from their site, which offered more than 400,000 illegally obtained copyright e-books free to download.

In my opinion, this is a far worse loss than megaupload. Hell, it's a bigger loss than piratebay would be were it shut down.

library.nu/ifile.it wasn't just used by people looking to pirate the newest pop fiction novel. It was the internets' most comprehensive source for academic works, by a huge margin. Textbooks these days can run upwards of $200. The main users of library.nu were students, teachers, independent researchers, third-world doctors and scientists, and others looking for nonfiction works. Most of these people simply cannot afford to pay such ridiculous prices for the books they need.

The publishing companies have gained nothing by doing this, but they've sure struck a huge blow to human knowledge. It's fucking tragic.

JotForm takedown

Nes wrote:JotForm takedown

Utter bullshit.

I don't think these takedown-mongers realize the consequences their actions will have. They're essentially poking the internet with a stick - I have a feeling there's going to be *major* backlash sometime within the next few months. And it's not going to be pretty.

Alliteration wrote: I don't think these takedown-mongers realize the consequences their actions will have.

Of course they don't. But while their pockets are being lined with corporate money, they just won't give a shit. This is what happens in a world where idiots get to be in charge of things that they know nothing about. Like you said, it's a damn shame.

Dix.

Fifth Amendment wrote:[N]or shall any person [. . .] be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law

It's simply on high time we saw more such sites established out of reach from US and UK authorities. The battle for sensible legislation in those countries is clearly lost, so that leaves staying out of their jurisdiction the only option.

Video interview with Kim Dotcom(founder of megaupload.com)

Link
Mirror

The thing that spooks me isn't so much the part about "piracy crackdown." Rather, the thing that spooks me is the part about "worldwide ... crackdown." Is it truly the case that we're seeing the beginnings of effective coordination among world-wide policing and governmental control agencies? Aside from some obvious "sharing" methods -- repositories of information such as Interpol, for example -- I can't recall any other such a trans-national coordinated effort, ever.