Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy

The precedent is far too dangerous. It's so dangerous that it could make PIPA / SOPA look like little cute puppies.

The moral issues of being a pirate or not being a pirate and of allowing or not allowing piracy to exist are more of a "feel good, don't be weird" matter.

These legal precedents can and will be used to silence any kind of protests and all things like: articles / reports about police brutality, murders, people "vanishing" conveniently when what they're saying is incovenient for someome, fake votes, scandals of all sorts.

Today it's Megaupload, tomorrow it will be YouTube. After that, they will interrupt a live report which is incovenient.

If you think those who rule are better than this, you're wrong. We've seen it before and we're seeing it again: Apple used the FBI and the police on the country's territory as its own security force as if the country was its headquarters, the FBI seems to be used more and more to go after pirates and other such things.

Meanwhile, all kinds of bad things happen around the world, but the law enforcement agencies are too busy to defend the copyrights of big companies which want more billions in the pockets of those who own those companies.

While the people are paying their taxes and are expecting to live a life without being worried they'll be nuked by some insane dictator, they really don't want to look over their shoulder to make sure the politicians who are ruling the country aren't being replaced by the puppets of the corporations.

After all, making sure a 12 year old doesn't download an mp3 from Megaupload is far more important than making sure my children won't be having a probe in their bodies to tell the companies and the government where they are, what they eat, what they like, if they're sick, what they're seeing and saying and what their opinion is on the ads they see.

First they came for the communists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak out because I was Protestant.

Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.

I don't know when it will become unreasonable, but I don't want to get to that moment, just to realize there's no one to speak for us. They may start with piracy (OK, they are violating copyright), then why not libel, seems fair enough. And while we are there, why not stop this, and that.

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri had an excellent phrase that I always remember:

The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master.

Google cache of the press release: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?hl=en&q=cac...

The USA is no longer a democracy. Shady companies and the richest couple of assholes owning everything are making the decisions now and instruct their politicians and their law agencies on who to attack.

This will not bode well with "the internet", which is just another term for millions of intelligent people around the world who are not happy with this system anymore. We are waking up and it is going to get ugly.

Copying is not theft. When people download something they probably wouldn't have bought it anyway, or they did afterwards. Intellectual copyright is a fallacy.