RIAA’s VP of Strategic Data Analysis believes that the shutdown of Megaupload and other P2P file sharing sites is mandatory and will decrease file sharing. Truthfully, it will upset many.
Megaupload’s shutdown by the Justice Department has caused a lot of controversy regarding piracy and whether file sharing sites like Megaupload should exist. One of the major supporters of the shutdown was the Recording Industry Association of America, naturally because they handle copyrighted music and want to make sure that no “unauthorized content including music, movies, and other copyrighted works” is shared. The shutdown led the RIAA’s Vice President, of Strategic Data Analysis, Josh P. Friedlander, to issue a statement on their blog, titled Why Closing Megaupload Matters.
Although, the post is aimed towards Megaupload, it mainly points out why they believe closing P2P services is important, alluding to Limewire’s shutdown. Supposedly, the shutdown of Limewire, according to the NPD group, decreases the use of P2P file sharing but really, with all the P2P file sharing sites out there, I find it hard to believe there is a decline in use.
Friedlander also points out, “Digital music sales that had been flagging jumped in the month immediately after the Limewire shutdown, and have remained stronger ever since (note that while the Beatles did go on iTunes in November of 2010, they only account for a small portion of that sales increase, and current music sales went up even more than catalog).
When Billboard looked at the data after the Limewire shutdown it said “The spike in sales was immediate, noticeable and lasting.” A chart of the sales spikes in 2011 can be seen below.
While this evidence may support the shutdown of P2P file sharing sites, the problem is that it doesn’t matter. Shutting down these sites will not, as Friedlander says, “encourage users to go to legitimate sites,” rather it will make them upset and angry, as in the case of Pirates of Catalonia, a political party in Catalonia that supports intellectual property reform, open access to culture and knowledge, transparency and Direct Democracy.
They have announced a collective civil action in Spain against the FBI because the shutdown has caused many users to lose files containing personal information and this may have violated Articles 197 and 198 of the Spanish Penal Code. It’s understandable that many artists (and there record labels) want to be compensated for their hard work but in the case of many Megaupload users who lost their important personal files, action against the unlawful seizure of those files must be taken.
Many have spoken out regarding the shutdown of Megaupload and many P2P file sharing sites such as Filesonic, Fileserve, FileJungle, UploadStation, 4shared, VideoBB, VideoZer, UploadBox, and Uploaded.to have shutdown their services to the U.S.
As I stated above, regardless of the shutdowns, people will continue to use P2P file sharing sites and they will collectively rise up to keep the sites around.
See Also: 10 Alternatives to LimeWire
[email protected] | @jkaykin
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I lost so much stuff and ave lost access to many things when Megaupload got shutdown. I don’t use Megaupload or any other sites like these for illegal purposes but the FBI did something illegal when they unlawfully seized my files.
U.S. Fascist thugs in action. To hell with everyone else as long as they get what THEY want. THEY are the criminals.