All of this is what I do for a living. I've been fighting SOPA and PIPA forever in the halls o' power. Bringing musicians right straight to the lawmakers to get their perspectives heard. Washington typically only listens to the powerful trade industry groups (RIAA, MPAA), but my org has been an artist-driven counter to this for more than a decade. I speak all around the country and in the media about this shit. Frankly, I'm tired of it, and wish the content industries would focus on something productive like licensing reform and tailoring their distribution to consumptive realities.
One thing to keep in mind, re: Mega is that it's a criminal case, not a civil one. So there's a higher standard, and a higher burden of proof. It's also why it is not likely that similar action would ever be brought against YouTube (they're already facing a civil challenge from Viacom, which is on appeal). There may, however, be a "chilling effect" with other locker-and-link style platforms, and we're actually already seeing some of that. Still, the assumption is the vast majority of legit services that actively comply with Digital Millennium Copyright Act provisions will continue to enjoy their safe harbors.
More here:
http://futureofmusic.org/blog/2012/01/2 ... megaupload
Megaupload shutdown, execs arrested
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CaseyContrarian
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Re: Megaupload shutdown, execs arrested
I can tell you right now, the legislators and enforcers don't understand what they're doing. There are already new places with just as good speeds filling the same niche (not gonna post them here... I'll just say that you can find them so easily it's ridiculous... so unless they want to shut down all file-hosting services on the planet...), and there always will be (unless deeper controls over the Internet are implemented, stronger than SOPA/PIPA that actually kill the Internet, ala Malaysia/China and the like). 
These industries deserve to die for not understanding and adapting to the changing paradigm. There's a shitload of money to be made if instead of protecting an outmoded model, they paid some money and took some risks (cf. iTunes, but better...)
These industries deserve to die for not understanding and adapting to the changing paradigm. There's a shitload of money to be made if instead of protecting an outmoded model, they paid some money and took some risks (cf. iTunes, but better...)