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The MPAA's latest list of "notorious markets", or their blacklist for known piracy hotspots, as obtained by TorrentFreak lists the closure of Megaupload as having a "massive impact" on the online piracy landscape.
"This year’s seizures of Megaupload.com and Megavideo.com by the Department of Justice illustrate the extent and impact that hosting hubs have on the online landscape," the document states.
"Some websites were abandoned by their operators, others lost traffic, while still others shifted their business model," the document explains, before concluding, "In sum, the impact of these seizures was massive and the hub landscape is still recovering."
But while the document lists the huge disruptions that were clearly seen on the direct linking piracy scene, and within the entire cloud file hosting industry itself (some of it spilling over to legitimate services), the actual effect of the US government backed action, in terms of revenue specifically, was not mentioned.
Just last week, a new research paper claimed to show that box office receipts for certain movies actually shrank in part due to the closure of Megaupload, citing the file host, and the general piracy scene's promotional effects. But even the MPAA's response to this story was relatively subdued, citing the need for "more information" and clarifications on the research paper's methodologies, as opposed to presenting their evidence to the contrary, especially if evidence exists that Megaupload's shutdown has helped to increase movie revenue.
The "notorious markets" list, which now devoid of Megaupload, still lists several file hosting providers. Websites such as Uploaded.net, Putlocker.com are still present on the list. Popular BitTorrent indexers, such as isoHut and The Pirate Bay, are still present, while the list also includes linking sites.
"This year’s seizures of Megaupload.com and Megavideo.com by the Department of Justice illustrate the extent and impact that hosting hubs have on the online landscape," the document states.
"Some websites were abandoned by their operators, others lost traffic, while still others shifted their business model," the document explains, before concluding, "In sum, the impact of these seizures was massive and the hub landscape is still recovering."
But while the document lists the huge disruptions that were clearly seen on the direct linking piracy scene, and within the entire cloud file hosting industry itself (some of it spilling over to legitimate services), the actual effect of the US government backed action, in terms of revenue specifically, was not mentioned.
Just last week, a new research paper claimed to show that box office receipts for certain movies actually shrank in part due to the closure of Megaupload, citing the file host, and the general piracy scene's promotional effects. But even the MPAA's response to this story was relatively subdued, citing the need for "more information" and clarifications on the research paper's methodologies, as opposed to presenting their evidence to the contrary, especially if evidence exists that Megaupload's shutdown has helped to increase movie revenue.
The "notorious markets" list, which now devoid of Megaupload, still lists several file hosting providers. Websites such as Uploaded.net, Putlocker.com are still present on the list. Popular BitTorrent indexers, such as isoHut and The Pirate Bay, are still present, while the list also includes linking sites.
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