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Dotcom: Clever - yes, Smart - I'm not so sure

Kim Dotcom has announced the upcoming launch of his new "stick it to the man" website called Me.ga and it's certainly very clever.

I'd often wondered why filesharing services didn't offer something similar -- I was thinking that perhaps each file could be broken up into (say) 20 streams, with each stream carrying 1/20th of the file contents with bytes extracted according to some kind of interleave algorithm.

Such a setup would mean that no individual computer would hold more than a small fraction of the "copyrighted work" and, because no contiguous bytes of data would be stored in any file it would be reasonable to state that no copyright had been infringed by any individual user.

Kim's strategy is to encrypt all files and share keys instead.

I have a feeling that in the eyes of the US lawyers, an encrypted copyrighted work is still a copyrighted work and they'll probably still consider possession or trafficking in such encrypted copies to be a crime.

Indeed, they might even suggest that these encrypted files are covered as a derived work -- since their data is directly derived from the original unencrypted work.

So Kim is being very clever - but is he very smart?

As he has already found out to his cost, when it comes to the law, you don't have to be guilty of anything to be censured. All they have to do is accuse you to shut down your business and seize your assets.

The other problem with Me.ga is that I can see the authorities declaring that trading encryption keys will be deemed analogous with trading copyrighted works. Those who trade keys will almost certainly attract the ire of "the powers that be" and it won't be long before the onus is on those accused to prove that the keys are not associated with any copyrighted material they do not hold license for.

At least with the distributed interleaved file data component, it becomes very clear that no individual file can be reconstituted back into a copyrighted work -- to do so would require most of the segments to be recovered and recombined. The job of prosecutors would thus be made much, much harder.

However, we're losing sight of something very important in all this cunning and cleverness...

Isn't it a bad thing to breach copyright law anyway?

I could download all the movies I want -- but I don't.

Mighty Ape loves my wife and I -- we usually buy a new DVD each week -- and I don't download anything that isn't legally published to the Net.

If people think that movies and music are too expensive (as some definitely are) then the solution is simple -- don't buy it -- but don't download it either.

As I've said way too-many times already. Forget the "big name artists" that are signed up to these evil record labels and find some great indie bands that will sell directly to you at a realistic price.

Forget the Hollywood blockbuster movies and their formulaic presentations, horrendously overpaid actors and massive executive salaries -- go track down some indie movies on YouTube.

Or, and here's something rather novel -- just ditch all this modern media and get a life :-)

Instead of watching too many movies, spend some time playing cards or just socialising with friends and neighbours. Summer will soon be here. I'd rather have a bevy and a BBQ with some mates than waste my life stuck in front of a TV set anyway.

The only way KD can really piss off the studios is to convince people that we really don't need the product they're flogging. Imagine if nobody watched, downloaded or purchased a new movie or music track for a month. Wouldn't *that* send a message that could not be ignored!

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