Conclusion

Introduction
Internet Piracy is still a relatively new concept. Illegal P2P file sharing started with Napster in 1999 and, due to the nature of what P2P sharing is and international law, is often difficult to stop or quell within the United States.
Top P2P File Sharing networks and applications

Noteworthy companies and their founders
Napster and their developers: Shawn Fanning Sean Parker
MegaUpload and it founder Kim Dotcom

How can copyrighted material be protected?
Digital Millennium Copyright Act
France's internet piracy law of 2009
SOPA PIPA


Trends of Piracy
- Piracy pays really well

- Where there is money to be made people will find away. Practically all major pirate sites are offshore from the US.

Same major Torrent Sites

megaupload->Hong Kong

thepiratebay->Sweden

isohunt->Canada

- People who found file sharing sites tend to get off scott-free... Kim Dotcom is probably to get off scott-free just like the rest of them.
- Some file sharing founders even on to start other initiatives . Sean Parker became a chief investor of a legal form of Napster, Spotify.
- Its extreemly popular
- Laws that "intend" to stop copyright infringement on the internet, so far, give too much authority to government. This makes for a lot of legitimate internet use potentially impeded upon, which makes a lot of legitimate internet companies very angry. As a result, no clear solution is available since the very nature of the internet is about open connectivity. So what does this mean? Piracy won't be a thing of the past any time soon.
- A lot of hackers get really angry whenever a government tries to crack down on CopyRight laws.

Personal Opinion
- Since piracy is not going to go away, the agencies who create various things like movies, music, books need to think of ways to make a profit while offering their material legally and for free ( or close to it).
- Rather than making everything illegal, companies need to create new incentives to not pirate that benefit both parties, like advertisements on streaming sites, bla bla bla

- People will continue to pirate and think of clever ways to stay one step ahead of anyone who tries to stop them.

- I want the government to stay out of the internet but I do think that it is a right of the companies who create the infringed content to be able to protect their investments.

Digital Millennium Copyright Act

megaupload.com

Description: massive file sharing site started by Kim Dotcom Incorporated in Hong Kong 2005-2012

10 Key facts: Anonymous Retaliates for MegaUpload
1.  Raids inflame political debate. "proposed anti-piracy legislation--the House's Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Senate's PROTECT IP Act (PIPA)"
2.  Anonymous responds with massive DDoS attack. "the largest distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack in history"
3.  DOJ questions Anonymous assertions.
4. Anonymous links launch auto-attacks.
5. Megaupload was mega-popular. "Statistics from Google AdSense"
6. Indictment hinged on Virginia servers. "Given the push by the RIAA and MPAA for SOPA and PIPA to target rogue foreign websites hosting pirated content"
7. Copyright enforcers signal elation.
8. Executives dismiss allegations.
9. Feds captured conversations.
10. Filesharing remains highly politicized. "Megaupload was a self-described "online storage and file delivery service," Critics, on the other hand, often derided it as an "illegal distribution hub."

Anonymous

Anonymous activists question the trillions of dollars that file sharing sites such as MegaUpload could be sued against and retaliates against MegaUpload raids.

Mathew J. Schwartz 02/07/2012 Anonymous 'hacktivists' aim to expose what they call government and establishment hypocrisy.

"Retaliation For The Megaupload Raids 

When the FBI knocked file-sharing site Megaupload offline for allegedly infringing copyright laws and building a criminal enterprise that helped its eccentric founder, Kim Dotcom, book profits of $175 million, it didn't take Anonymous long to register its disproval. A statement from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) lauding the takedown probably just fanned the flames, as Anonymous members joined together, allegedly knocking the websites of the Department of Justice, FBI, Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the RIAA, and Universal Music Group offline."

France's internet piracy law 2009

President Nicolas Sarkozy

"President Nicolas Sarkozy's governing party rejoiced when it muscled one of his pet projects through the French parliament: an unprecedented law to cut the Internet connections of people who repeatedly download music and movies illegally."

"In France, opponents of the law say it misses the point — targeting traditional peer-to-peer downloads while online "streaming" is taking off. They also say the law will be technically impossible to apply, in part, they claim, because the software required for monitoring does not exist.
The French law creates a government agency to sanction the offenders, with the actual monitoring left to industry watchdogs. It's a role the industry, suffering from a drop in profits due to file-sharing, is ready to assume."

Shawn Fanning

Description: Entrepreneur, programmer, businessman

Net worth: 7.5 million
Noteworthy facts: Went to Northeastern University but decided to drop out to pursue Napster, became start-up investor after the fall of Napster
Ventures:

Napster 1999-2001

MTV VMAs
Snocap 2002-2008
-Tried to create a "legal" P2P file share network
- TIME magazine noted that "27% of SNOCAP's employees are Napster veterans."
Rupture 
-"a social networking tool designed to handle the task of publishing gamers' individual profiles to a communal space and facilitating communication between World of Warcraft players."
-sold to Electronic arts for 15 million
Path 2010-present
-social network for photosharing, messaging, and mobile services
-a "companion" to Facebook
-limits friends to 150 to promote only close friend sharing\
Sources:
Wikipedia

Kim Dotcom

Description: Technology businessman
Net Worth: 200 million
Noteworthy facts: German, As a teenager claimed to break corporate PBX systems (telephone switchboard) and started a career in data security, founded DataProtect, found guilty on multiple occasions of insider trading and embezzlement, "Before his arrest, Dotcom was the world's number one-ranked Modern Warfare 3 player."
Ventures:

DataProtect 1994-?
MegaUpload 2005-2012
-Hong Kong incorporated file sharing company
-50 million visitors/day accounted for more than 4% of all internet traffic
-Kim was arrested for MegaUpload by the US Department of Justice in New Zealand
-US had jurisdiction to shut Kim down due to MegaUpload servers that were found in Virginia
-Still in custody for MegaUpload charges (on probation in home in Germany)
Sources:
Wikipedia

MegaUpload Servers in Virginia

Sean Parker

Description: Entrepreneur and businessman
Net worth: 2.1 Billion
Noteworthy facts: Never went to college, made 80k/year while a senior in high school, was recruited to work for the CIA while in high school
Ventures:

Napster 1999-2001

-Co founder of Napster with Shawn Fanning

-Within 1 year had tens of millions of users

-Shutdown by series of lawsuits

-Parker never suffered any legal consequences

Plaxo 2002-Present
-Address book and social networking service
-Integrated with Outlook
Causes 2007-present

-fundraising and advocacy application in Facebook

-"world's largest online platform for activism with 100 million installed users and $30 million raised for nonprofits" 

Facebook 2004-present
-Parker became founding president of company
-Supposed first investor of company
-"Zuckerberg notes that "Sean was pivotal in helping Facebook transform from a college project into a real company."
Spotify 2008-present
-Swedish start up company
-Parker wanted to invest in music sharing company similar to Napster legally
-"Parker announced a partnership between Facebook and Spotify, which allowed users to share their Spotify playlists on their Facebook profiles."
Source:
Sean Parker

Napster

Name: Napster
Initial Release: 1999
Developers: John and Shawn Fanning, Sean Parker
Description: This media player, utilizing P2P file sharing, is the original  and most popular of all P2P networks that shared MP3 files. In its height it had over "25 million users and 80 million songs". Its downfall was preempted by various bands and artists such as Metallica and Dr. Dre (in addition to several major record labels). "In 2000, A&M Records and several other recording companies, via the RIAA, sued Napster (A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc.) for contributory and vicarious copyright infringement under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).[18] The music industry made the following claims against Napster:

   1. That its users were directly infringing the plaintiffs' copyrights.
   2. That Napster was liable for contributory infringement of the plaintiffs' copyrights.
   3. That Napster was liable for vicarious infringement of the plaintiffs' copyrights.

Napster lost the case in the District Court and appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Although the Ninth Circuit found that Napster was capable of commercially significant non-infringing uses, it affirmed the District Court's decision. On remand, the District Court ordered Napster to monitor the activities of its network and to block access to infringing material when notified of that material's location. Napster was unable to do this, and so shut down its service in July 2001. Napster finally declared itself bankrupt in 2002 and sold its assets. It had already been offline since the previous year owing to the effect of the court rulings."
Sources:
A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc.
Wikipedia

MegaUpload Shutdown Instills Fear With Other Pirate Companies

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2097738/BTJunkie-voluntarily-shuts-Megaupload-domino-effect-file-sharing-sites-gathers-pace.html

The RIAA and its numerous lawsuits

Touches on Napster, other P2P systems, and the future of online piracy.
Mini P2P and internet piracy history
More complete list of P2P networks.
P2P networks list
More on P2P file sharing.
Scholarly article on P2P networking
Anonymous P2P networks still subject to copyright infringement.
No P2P anonymous network safe

Introduction

This blog will cover various government intervention in accordance to piracy infringement over the years. It will also discuss what popular sites have been taken down over the years, their specific legal infringements the FBI or other government organization used to shut them down with, and other countries stances on such issues. A progressive timeline of events would paint a better visual picture of internet piracy throughout the past decade and show its evolution.

Case blog posts:
1. Case Name
2. Events leading to lawsuit
3. Summary
4. Precedents set

Other blog posts:
1. Articles relevant to internet piracy trends (such as new technologies)
2. Foreign cases & overseas regulations
3. Recent and current copyright or piracy bills
4. Millionaire pirates (background of pirate entrepreneurs)