5 ms·

It would be nice to see a proper corporate backed "tech lobby" with some teeth emerge from this, but I'm probably hoping for too much.

• Zigurd 13y ago
  Be careful what you wish for. A big slice of the tech industry builds surveillance technology and sells it to anyone globally. Would you trust such a lobby not to lobby for protectionism if US companies were losing business to overseas providers of verifiable secure services?
  • jlgreco 13y ago
    There are already people lobbying heavily for all the shitty things I could see a tech lobby lobbying for. MPAA/RIAA, protectionist labor unions, 'military-industrial complex', etc. Tech lacks representation though, particularly compared with how much lobbying much less affluent industries manage to do.
    • eliasmacpherson 13y ago
      I think specific parts of tech, lobby specifically, for their specific interests - and those specifics aren't aligned with other players. Far be it from me to understand the finer points - but to my mind, youtube isn't a whole lot different from megaupload - but you can bet Google has top class lobbyists and lawyers, whereas megaupload did not.
      • nly 13y ago
        Everything on Youtube is publicly indexed. It's therefore accessible to copyright holders and authorities. Megaupload (and all file lockers) were set-up as if your uploads are personal and private, but to still allow files to be shared by passing around direct URLs. This is why Rapidshare (who were once one of the biggest of them all) ditched their sharing capability and are now left alone. It's the cliques that are the problem to vested interests, not the frivolous sharing.
        • eliasmacpherson 13y ago
          I don't follow. In what way was megaupload inaccessible? Rapidshare have had to ditch their sharing capability - and yet youtube continues unimpeded. Can you explain what I am misunderstanding?
          • rayiner 13y ago
            The difference is that Youtube takes advantage of the DMCA safe harbor provision by responding to DMCA takedown requests. Indeed, the Youtube/Viacom litigation was instrumental in the current understanding between media companies and internet companies that sharing sites could operate freely as long as they complied with DMCA requirements. Megaupload in comparison made it a point to bill itself as a facilitator of copyright infringement.
            • eliasmacpherson 13y ago
              I'm not sure I remember it billing itself as a facilitator of copyright infringment and I do seem to recall megaupload responding to DMCA requests. I remember in response to their indictment megaupload said that the DMCA requests they didn't respond to were on machines that had some other legal instrument demanding they not interfere with the evidence. I wasn't sure how youtube's private videos worked but jlgreco has explained above - further blurring the lines in my view between megaupload et al and youtube. I think the litigation you mention is evidence of Google's lawyering and lobbying prowess.
              • tptacek 13y ago
                No, from the available information (including the indictment) it did not appear that Megaupload complied with DMCA laws. Specifically: (1) They sought to rate-limit DMCA takedown requests (2) They operated the service with red-flag knowledge of copyrighted content, such as when a user complained that the video quality of the Showtime show "Dexter" was poor, and Kim Schmitz mailed his team to work on improving the quality of that content. (3) They themselves used the service to exchange copyright-encumbered material, such as the movie "Taken". (4) They operated a paid incentive program to get users to upload copyrighted content, and in their itemized performance reports for the program acknowledged repeatedly that the content they were paying for was copyrighted.