Analysis: Megaupload Shutdown Unlikely To Deter Piracy

By Joseph Menn and Sarah McBride
SAN FRANCISCO | Mon Jan 23, 2012 9:01pm EST

(Reuters) - The crackdown on file-sharing site Megaupload is expected to do little to reduce overall piracy of music, software and Hollywood movies, while potentially stifling emerging means of distributing content online.

In the wake of last week's surprising indictment of the digital storage company and seven executives, other companies have begun changing their policies even as Megaupload officers maintained their innocence in a first court appearance in New Zealand.

Filesonic.com stopped allowing people to download files that they had not uploaded themselves, while Uploaded.to blocked access from Internet locations in the United States.

However, just 3 percent of U.S. Internet users relied on digital lockers like Megaupload in the third quarter, according to NPD market research, compared with 9 percent who used peer-to-peer networks, which allow sharing of files among consumers' computers with little or no central organization.

Ya think?

Perfect example to back-up this analysis would be this post authored by THE_PROFESSIONAL:

No Megaupload? No Problem

If piracy had a "mainstream" it would not be the use of file lockers or even P2P networks. Most of these types of programs were created for a more "user friendly" platform (for all intents and purposes) for the average Joe.

Their are so many "streams" (that are not common knowledge or have been forgotten i.e. IRC) to plop your virtual fishing line in to catch (download) whatever your little heart desires whether licensed, copyrighted, or otherwise.

Even if they do shut down the 12% of what the minority is using they have only scratched at the surface.

When they start to take down the actual platforms and networks where the majority of the piracy is running rampant then the pirates will find another method as they have been doing consistently since it began. I am afraid aside from totally switching off the internet, this will never be a battle that is won by TPTB, imo.

Article Source

IRC would be used instead
like the days before torrent
programs. p2p networks
are a thing of the past.
The mega upload dude dotcom
had made hundreds of millions
they were gunning for his ass.

The closure of Megaupload and the following of several other hosting sites who stopped their services, certainly did help. It didn't help against the big pirates who use Usenet and know where to get the things, but it helped against the small-time pirates who don't know much about computers and in fact used those Hosting websites.
If it was different, there wouldn't be such an outcry from those Bastards that downloaded pirated media from Megaupload, Uploaded and the other sites and sometimes even had a payed account. Megaupload was pretty popular in the german pirate scene, lots of people, who bought one of those "lifetime vip" passes are crying, because they lost this money (and we can only hope that those accounts are raided, imprison those idiots, it would be for the best)

It won't stop piracy but it was a good step (Not to forget that it wasn't only Megaupload but the whole "Mega"-Imperium including Megavideo, Megapix, Megaporn, Megalive and Megabox that went down. Megavideo was a extremely popular and heavily used site for movies and tv shows)

And personally i'm glad because Kim Schmitz, the guy behind "Mega" is a complete asshole who did so much crap over the past 25 years that he really deserves to rot away in a dark cell.