The Battle for Digital Piracy
 

So, after this happened - BBC News - Megaupload file-sharing site shut down I've been noticing recently during my adventures on the high seas that most of these websites have suddenly shut down their file-sharing services. It seems like the U.S, and apparently quite a few other governments around the world are taking pretty offensive actions towards limiting user capabilities on the internet (what with recent push of SOPA and PIPA).

Piracy is obviously a huge problem, but it's scary to see what some of the side-effects of these actions have on what the internet is and your right to use it freely. I've seen how much the internet has changed since the 90's (has become massively commercialized), and it will be interesting to see what it's like 10 years from now...

It's a difficult issue. As a shareware author, I know my software is being used illegitimately. On a couple of occasions I've had support request from people who aren't in my customer list, and when I ask for their license key they give one that's obviously out of a keygen. So I'm no fan of piracy. But I'm also scared that whenever the government gets a hard-on about something they'll use a pile driver to drive a thumbtack, simply because it's too much effort to craft an appropriate response. Then everyone suffers. Case in point, the Canadian government put a surcharge on recording media like CD-R's a while back to 'compensate' the recording industry for any loss of income that might theoretically be caused by selling this perfectly legal and legitimate product. Morons.

but you wanna know whats really fucked up?

look at this
http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ly...vbwso1_500.png

And yet downloading torrents is still legal in Canada. I think it was the right move, but I'm a pirate. :)