[Adam Curry] Reading legal documents is a hobby of mine.
I just finished reading the 72 page indictment of the ‘Mega Conspiracy’, as the feds call it, and have 3 thoughts:
1. Megaupload was a pirate site and everyone knows it.
2. The Dutch guy is an idiot for sending so much confidential information on email. What was he using? GMail?
3. This case proves there is a real business to be built by ‘Hollywood’ with their content on-line.
The entire document is filled with examples of how the company owners, employees, but also their viral business model of referrals and advertising resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. People ultimately were paying for content, either with cash or time they invested in building a referral network to continue their access to this content.
Wow. People are willing to pay. Who would have thought??
This is powerful evidence that all content can benefit from new models, that aren’t built on locked-in, locked-up, fenced-in gatekeeper denial of service.
Two remnant thoughts:
1. PayPal and several hosting companies were also well aware of what MU was doing, yet they are not indicted (as far as I know).
2. Why the hell do we need SOPA? Seems the current system worked just fine.
