Megaupload Latest Casualty Of War: Freedom Of Speech V. Copyright Infringement

I'm sure most of you have heard by now that MegaUpload and it's subsidiary MegaVideo have been shut down by the FBI and it's CEO Kim Dotcom jailed. The FBI and Justice Department alleges "MegaUp­load was a 'mega con­spir­acy' and a glob­al crim­in­al or­gan­iz­a­tion 'whose mem­bers en­gaged in crim­in­al copy­right in­fringe­ment and money laun­der­ing on a massive scale.'The De­part­ment also said that MegaUp­load, which had about 150 mil­lion users, tal­lied up an es­tim­ated harm to copy­right hold­ers in ex­cess of $500-mil­lion by al­low­ing users to il­leg­ally share movies, mu­sic and oth­er files. In ad­di­tion, pro­sec­utors also said in the in­dict­ment that those who op­er­ated the site racked in an in­come from that topped $175-mil­lion." This not only marks the end of MegaUpload but is a continuing battle in the war over copyright infringement versus freedom of speech. Anonymous a prominent hacker group claimed it had taken down the Department of Justice website over the incident among other government and entertainment industry websites as well as taking cbs.com offline over the weekend. The group also claimed it was not done and set it sites on Facebook. Since the recent battle in congress over SOPA and PIPA many activists and web proprietors have been at odds with the entertainment industry and government. The government continues to go after those they feel are violating copyright infringement laws and many on the internet as well as civil rights groups are vehemently protesting what they feel is unjust censorship and willful violation of the First Amendment. "The shut-down of the file sharing site Megaupload last week prompted thousands of users to participate in an Anonymous-led attack on opponents of the service, which left the websites for the FBI, Department of Justice, Motion Picture Association of America and Universal Music Group, among others, momentarily crippled." I expect more Anonymous attacks in coming weeks and further protesting over what is becoming an increasingly embittered battle over defining what extent government can regulate content and speech over the internet. In many ways this is not only a question of freedom of speech but a question of our civil liberties in the years to come. The actions of our government have done more to restrict civil liberties in the last few years than have been done in the last 50, and they have convinced many that this loss of privacy and civil liberty is justified as we are fighting new enemies. I will end with a quote from Benjamin Franklin " Any society that will give up a little freedom for a little security, will deserve neither and lose both." The Internet has become the defining revolution of our time from the explosion of e-commerce, the Arab Spring, English Riots, Even much of the Organizing gone into The Occupy Movement. The Internet has completely revolutionized our way of life allowing us to freely share ideas and have instant access to information. I believe the powers that be seek to take that from us because it puts the power back into our hands a power that all the guns in the world could not fight and they are afraid of that.