SOPA/PIPA/Megaupload

[kapuahi]

You know I understand on a business level why they've pulled the Megaupload crap today, and why in their principles SOPA/PIPA is a good idea, but seriously?

MU is basically used by fans, real fans, to share what they love with people who have a similar love.  People who yes, might download something illegally, but from these people who does it really hurt?  These are the same people who watch the download, then watch when it screens in their region, buy the DVD when it's released, buy the blu ray when they come along.    Want to talk movies?  I've dl'd movies that I've seen 15/20 times at the cinema and want to watch while I'm waiting for the DVD release.  Music?  I have every Garth Brooks CD, some of them I have three or four different versions of but I've downloaded because I've listened so much some of them that the actual discs are no longer viable.

So, corporate asshats, don't tell me and my fannish friends that we are ripping you off.  You probably get more money from us then you would if we had less love for your product.  Keep this shit up and you'll get nada, because we'll always find a way to share the love.

Comments

[chainer-morgana.livejournal.com]

It's more or less what I think.
There are things I dl that I'd buy anyway, that I *BUY* anyway...I dl them because they're more pratical in a avi or mp3 file than on a disk, but I still have them.
Then there are things I dl because I'm bored or curious...but those are things I wouldn't buy! If I hear a song I like I may dl the singer last album to see how it's like, but I wouldn't pay for it, because 9 out of 10 times I delete it a moment later because I don't like it!
Or I dl tv shows that in Italy I'd only see six months later..
I can assure all them that no more than a few bucks, litterary a few, of money I could have given them, was taken from them by MU.
And then..I don't think it's really about piracy and all, it's all too well timed...

[kapuahi.livejournal.com]

it's ridiculous really that all it comes down to is money. They are afeared we're getting something for nothing and they're determined to stop it. Literally the only things I download that I don't have the DVD's for are series that aren't released on DVD yet, so the only funds they're missing from me is for the stuff they won't put on DVD because they deem it's not cost effective.

The big problem is really all the countries out of step in screening times. I remember while watching the early seasons of Lost I got the DVD box set for a season before we had actually had the episode screen.

[stellarmeadow.livejournal.com]

One of their bigger issues was that MU was making a fortune off their piracy with paid accounts - I think the number I saw was US$175 million.

Personally, I think it's like putting the head of Ford Motor in jail because someone used a Taurus in a robbery. But I find the whole thing ridiculous anyway--people aren't buying as much music or going to as many movies because the economy is tanked and people don't have money and that's all there is to it. Ask anyone in retail--I hardly think people are downloading food and clothes, and yet those industries are down, too.

[tibbslover.livejournal.com]

MU was the only site I trusted to DL my stuff. I live in Germany, I can't hear the dubbed version and it takes FOREVER for the DVD's to come out.

I do it the same way, DL now, watch it over and over again and wait for the DVD to come out.

So why would they take that away from us? I'm hoping the site will be back up in February when NCIS is back from Hiatus with it's 200th episode and Hawaii Five-0 and NCIS:Los Angeles and Criminal Minds xD

[divinemadam.livejournal.com]

It is awfully convenient that this happened exactly when the SOPA and PIPA laws have been losing traction. I can see the announcements that will soon come out that will claim, "Look! We busted these people who live outside of the US for piracy and that's who we want to stop with SOPA and PIPA." It is too coincidental that this happened the same week as the blackout of sites in protest of those bills and the same week that has seen the crashing of some Senators' and Representatives' websites with protests against the bills. I think that it is all political.

[sherry57.livejournal.com]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h2dF-IsH0I
This is a good link with, for me, a really clear explanation of this situation. I pay for my megaupload downloads because I want to download legally. I then always buy the dvds of the things I download...any insopector is welcome to come and see my DVD collection. I think a lot of us download because we're impatient to see our fav shows. Here in France, we have to wait fro a year or more after the shows air in America!! Megaupload closing is really bad news for a lot of us fans who live outside the US. And megaupload is bound to be just the first attack...what will go next?

[alassenya]

This, absolutely. I would say that I've bought at least half of whatever I've seen first as a download. It would be more, but a lot of what I download simply isn't available to buy (The Sentinel seasons 2-4, I'm looking at YOU).

*sigh*