Dropbox Adds Key Feature That Supposedly Made Megaupload Illegal: Link To Download
from the warning-signs dept
Popular cloud service provider Dropbox has announced the ability to share stuff in your Dropbox with a link. This is not a revolutionary offering. It's actually pretty common and can be quite useful for simple sharing of files. But, as Mathew Ingram noted, this is exactly part of the reason that Megaupload was accused of criminal conspiracy. For example, the fact that Megaupload did not provide a "search" feature to find all the content in its cloud, but merely let people link in, was seen as a way to "hide" the fact that infringing material was available. I am assuming -- given the way Dropbox operates -- that it, too, is not intending to provide a search engine. It's good to see Dropbox confident enough that it won't be shut down on questionable criminal charges -- but it certainly continues to raise questions about what the government considers evidence of criminal conspiracy... and how that could create a chill on companies who are, perhaps, less well established than Dropbox. Update: As some have pointed out in the comments, the specific feature is more about viewing content via the link, not downloading. Sorry, we should have been clearer. However, again, this fits with the Megavideo style offering of providing access to content without necessarily downloading it. Still appears to be exactly the part that so concerned the Justice Dept...
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Filed Under: conspiracy, linking, mathew ingram, search
Companies: dropbox, megaupload
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Sigh
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You are simply put an a__-hole for providing information and encouraging enforcement against a website that could lead to my "legal" content becoming unavailable to me.
For that reason I think you should be banned from TechDirt.
Now I am going to have to find another place to store my "legal" content and share it.
BAN YOU!!!!!
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Google Docs works this way to
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Although, that still doesn't clear up for me how this is more controversial than the public links.
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Can't please the entertainment industry... ever.
Handing over all root and administrator passwords isn't going far enough. Shutting down the lockers isn't going far enough. Shutting down the internet isn't going far enough. Taking a sledgehammer to the hard drives and blowing up the planet isn't going far enough. The entire universe imploding in on itself isn't going far enough.
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Re: Can't please the entertainment industry... ever.
If we could only get Rodger Bumpass reading this out loud in the transformed Hanover Fiste voice from the Heavy Metal movie, my day would be complete.
All I can say is thank goodness Captain Stern didn't get charged with violating copyright... Heavy Metal Captain Stern & Hanover Fist
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Re: Can't please the entertainment industry... ever.
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Chris Dodd is coming!
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about what the government considers evidence of criminal conspiracy
YOU HAVE NO RIGHTS! Now shut up and get on the train. We have new facilities built just for you. Our internment, uh, holding facilities, are state of the art.
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Linking is not new: only the gallery view
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Hekkuva job, Copyright Cartel dinosaurs!
And they just don't learn: every time they whack a mole, 4 more appear. And they'll whack again. And for each one they whack again, 4 more will appear. And so on ...
They can buy all the additional governments that they want. It won't help them. It's too late. They're dealing with the next generation now. And the next generation has no need for them and their ancient "ways".
Sir Richard Branson (" with an estimated net worth of US$4.2 billion" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Branson ) said himself years ago in an interview that the biggest business mistake he ever made was to try to start another record label (which tanked massively) like did with Virgin Records (which helped kick his empire off) and that the heydays of labels were past.
I don't even have to theorize about the subject any more - the evidence is plain to see. People would not so long ago have paid for good quality modern formatted and distributed content, but no - the old men that ran the ever-diminishing number of labels would not let this happen. Ignoring demand, they created a massive vacuum that has long been burst. So the people solved the problem themselves. And in a classic case of "still missing the boat" the relevance of the old industry withers. Filesharing continues to explode and sympathy for dying dinosaurs continues to wane.
In less than a decade, they have moved me from a fierce advocate of their self-appointed "rights" to someone who cannot wait to see them vanish form existence.
Hekkuva job, Copyright Cartel dinosaurs!
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Actually, it changed the use of drop box dramatically. It's not "pretty common", it changes your storage from a private thing into an open, public thing.
Downplaying the implications isn't helping.
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So, no, none of this has "drastically" changed the use of Dropbox. Overstating the implications isn't helping, either.
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Please explain why this makes such a dramatic difference.
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From where I sit, there is no difference between "downloading" and "streaming". I can watch videos while they download, so in terms of viewing the difference between the two is purely academic. Likewise, I can save anything I stream as a normal media file, so again, the difference is academic.
I recognize there is one minor difference: in a stream, you can "skip around" in the content, as you allude to with your "watch the end" comment. But this alone is hardly a major feature, certainly not a game-changer.
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Makes for a less than convincing argument, but if that's all ya got, that's all ya got.
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It's actually pretty common.
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Get off your soap box. I am a content creator I give my things away for free and make a decent income from donations.
The law needs updating to reflect the fast pace of the new world media. IP and copyright need massively downgrading to 6 months allowing for registration for 3 years (allowing for a real fair use) for works that can demonstrate they have made above say $100,000
You computer analogy was a load of crap, get with the times!
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What are "tech geeks" doing to ruin the lives of people who create content? This is a very serious question, because outside of the the pirate community I can't think of a single instance of anything that comes close to such a thing.
I blame the major entertainment giants for things they're actually doing to harm me. I'll stop being angry about that when they stop doing it.
Find a solution to what? To the troubles that some content creators are having? If so, then the tech industry has presented quite a few technological tools that can help, but in the end, we have neither the ability or responsibility to solve that problem. It can only be solved by the content industry.
If you're talking about finding a solution to the attack on the general public and the tech industry in particular that the major entertainment industry is engaging in, then we're working on it.
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Au contraire. It's the entertainment industries' responsibility for solving their own problems. Despite having no obligation to do so, we are giving constructive suggestions, and placing the blame squarely (and fairly) on their shoulders for failing to adapt to the changing world.
If big players in the entertainment industry are dying, it's only deservedly so because they did not evolve as the world changed.
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Let's look a little closer at what we have written in the Constituion:
Congress has the power to restrict the right to copy provided
1) It is for a finite time
2) It is done to "promote the progress"
There is no requirement to protect the income of those generating expressions or ideas. Further this power has to be balanced with the provisions of the first amendment, where the first amendment takes precedence where a conflict arises.
Also if you wanted to peacefully co-exist, why the constant attacks on:
The public domain
The democratic process
The internet
Open source
Indy creators
If you want the solution to piracy, it is simple:
Ignore the pirates and focus on increasing the willingness to pay for your stuff from the group that is both willing and able to pay for something.
The pirates aren't going to ever pay you enough to support your business, no matter how hard you try to force it out of them. They just aren't worth your time and effort.
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Someone is trying to steal my right to make a computer at home and do what I like with it. Unlike your scenario I do lose something real.
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Hurry up as an industry and go away so we can get on with making the technology you so love (last time i checked Apple by its self is bigger than the music industry, so who does the world really love?)
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Worth $2000 to whom? There isn't a song out there that I am willing to pay more than $0.99 for.
The rest of your comment is really, really silly. Copyright is not a Constitutionally protect right. The Constitution simply give Congress the right to enact copyright laws. Which also means Congress can revoke, change, replace and even remove copyright laws.
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NEW???
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Different Conspiracy Theory
Lobbying dollars well spent...get the Justice Department to discredit my competitor, using the RIAA/MPAA as a convenient scape goat!!
Isn't that what regulatory capture, in this case IP Law, is all about? Using the government to keep competitors from beating me in the marketplace?
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For Those Who Still Don't Get It
The "major" movie industry is in great danger of falling into the same traps and dying.
So are a few others.
As to things being written into the american constitution - I'm lucky enough not to an american, so I really don't give a rat's ass. But if I did, I'd point out that 1) governments that create constitutions may be fundamentally corrupt and even if not they are constantly subjected to corrupting influences and 2) any constitution is based solely upon things as they are known at that point (unless you believe that people have the ability to see the future, in which case I suggest you seek "medical" help immediately).
Adapt or die.
It's that simple.
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FBI take down of dropbox for conspiracy,money laundering, ect O_O RIP :(
Friday Dec 10 2032
Revolution and massive worldwide uprising finally happens after bill to install crime prevention bombs in a persons asshole passes.
Scary shit right! I tell you the shits going to hit the fan someday.
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This is nothing new
I've been using DB for a few years now and you've always been able to do what is being done now with files in the Public folder. Even video files in the Public folder could be streamed from the public download link if you have the right video player installed for that file. The only thing this adds is the ability to link any file from any folder, puts them in a nice little viewing page, and gives you a "Download" button and a "Add to my Dropbox" button.
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