WTH... I mean really

Earlier at the start of the year, I had this premonition, due to the impending end of 1N2D this coming February, I suddenly felt a strong urge to download all the episodes... before it all disappears. I think it was because jiwonified's youtube account finally getting axed by MBC (due to copyright infringement) and Bee's talk of "I don't know what to do with this site once 1n2d ends" that gave me the heavy feeling of "if I don't do it now, I won't be able to do it later." So I became a premier member of Megaupload for the cost of peanuts earlier this month. They had a new year promo, and I could enjoy a 2-month membership for the price of one. So I was on a downloading spree. Downloading 10 episodes of whatever (1n2d, k-drama, whatever) at the speed of lightning.

I was enjoying the start of my 4-day weekend, thought it was safe to take a break from my downloading spree and spent almost the whole Saturday out. I didn't even bother to go online that day. Then on Sunday, I was having a lazy morning with the kids, had breakfast and finally checked the news, and ohmaigattttt.... noooo.... Megaupload was shut down!! Wtf US Government??? Piracy... eesh. I was only up to episode 226. I dunno how many more eng sub episodes I had yet to download even. I wish I had not taken a break on the19th. I wish I had left the download running all night long. Aaaargh. I was screaming at myself for being so slack. I knew this would happen. My premonition was right all along.

There are so many others like me who make an almost daily contact with MU. (Megaupload for short). Before being a premier member, I would download one episode per day from them. One episode of anything. Most of the k-dramas that I download were from MU. I mean most of the sites I downloaded any k-drama from used MU as their main file-sharing site. I think because it was easy and fast. And allowed passwords for more privacy. We thought KBS, SBS and MBC were hard on their crackdown of youtube accounts, but we didn't even calculate the US Government into the formula. Okay so maybe it is copyright infringement, and maybe what I and countless millions of others have been doing is considered online piracy... but so what?? I do still pay cable tv charges to watch those very same dramas and variety shows, but I just wanted to "own" a piece of it on my computer... so I can watch it over and over for years and years to come.

Yes, there is live streaming. But I haven't figured out how to record live streaming from the internet yet. And live streaming doesn't have english subs. I feel bad for uploaders though. They are the ones that have worked so hard to record the shows and upload it onto the site for us viewers. And the subbers. I hope that they've got some backup copies of their softsubs stored elsewhere. I think even mediafire isn't safe anymore. They are probably gonna crackdown on all file-sharing sites. Like how they did with napster.

But I have made a new year's resolution to stop downloading mp3s without paying. I calculated the cost of a legal mp3, and it was like $0.11 per song... and that's like the cost of nothing. So I might as well pay and let the artist earn something. That was my new year's resolution. (I also sort of realised that if I paid for my music downloads, then it contributes to my artist's chart standings, and I can actually help make them win awards.) So anyway, I wasn't on MU to download music. Just the tv stuff.

This totally sucks. I think there are a lot less torrents out there for k-stuff because MU was so great. Uploading was more efficient for uploaders, so they didn't use torrents that much, maybe? I dunno, that's what it seemed like to me. Now even torrents aren't safe, I think. I dunno when and how it will be stopped by governments everywhere. Cos torrents are totally more peer-to-peer than file-sharing sites, right? How to justify me sharing my file with someone on an ftp to be copyright infringement?

I personally don't think I can live without the ability to download anything. Especially now with MBC making better dramas than SBS/KBS and what with Jiwon being on the main cast of Come To Play (which airs on MBC). Astro doesn't carry MBC, so there isn't a way for me to legally watch it unless I download it. Malaysia was the first to ban certain file-sharing sites (but we found a way around that, too), but now the US Govt actually shut one of the biggest ones down. That's just scary man. The US thinks it can do anything. *shivers*

But anyway, I don't think I'll be getting my money back from MU. I wonder what it will say to it's members, if anything. What about those people that paid hundreds of dollars for 3-year membership or what?? The MU people are probably all having a huge headache right now thinking about the backlash of all this. What if some people actually only use MU to store files?? Like totally innocent people? What about all those legally owned files that are now lost?? How does a government shut down servers anyway? Do they seize them physically? What happens to that massive load of data? Some people's livelihoods may depend on that data. I can just imagine some neurotic techie somewhere having a meltdown a few days ago when this all happened. Like some brainless one that didn't have a backup.

So this is how the Year of the Dragon starts...