Nilay Patel:
The United States Justice Department filed charges against MegaUpload today, calling the file-sharing service an “international organized criminal enterprise allegedly responsible for massive worldwide online piracy.”
[…]
The complaint alleges that MegaUpload, founder Kim Dotcom, and his team are responsible for $175 million in “criminal proceeds” and “more than half a billion dollars in harm to copyright owners.”
I am certainly not pro-piracy, but the notion that pirated content is a direct loss to the content provider is slightly fallacious. That is to say, people who pirate content would generally not purchase in the absence of piracy as a means of procurement. Meaning, if someone steals a $2.99 app or a $15.99 movie, it is questionable to say those are equivalent harms to the copyright owners. There are exceptions, however. For instance, when mobile applications require the use of servers to store and transfer data, pirated versions cause a substantive harm to the owner. The pirated copy is using resources that aren’t reimbursed through the sale of the app.
Nilay also makes another great point that should resonate given the current debate on SOPA. Namely, the U.S. already has actionable laws to respond to these cases.
While SOPA has been tabled for the moment, the MegaUpload case should prove to be a flashpoint for the issue in the months to come: both an example of how large the claimed piracy problem has become and how the US can already enforce its laws with broad international support.
Also of note: in response to the takedown, hacker group Anonymous claimed responsibility for attacking the websites of the Department of Justice, Universal Music, RIAA, and MPAA.