As the ‘cloud’ overshadows more and more of our daily lives, it is imperative that we collectively engage in some serious discussion regarding the water vapor that is stored there…
Like so much of the ‘real world’, the virtual world is also being cast into dialectical aspects: in particular the storage capability of the cloud. Much ado has been made recently of cyberlocker sites, such as MegaUpload, who allegedly allowed and even promoted the storage and sharing of copyrighted material. On the one side we have the so-called ‘black hat’ sites: Pirate Bay, MegaUpload, 4Shared, Rapidshare, etc. – and on the other side, the perceived ‘white hat’ sites: BoxNet, DropBox, iCloud, Facebook, YouTube, AmazonEC, etc. As with most anything, these are highly arbitrary, and impossible to prove, labels. That has not stopped the popular press from weighing in, and oft times enforcing, a prejudicial outlook on a given ‘cloud’.
I am making no defense of, or even an analysis of, the particular business practices of any given cloud storage site or entity. I am however pointing out that a lot of finger-pointing is going on that really lacks logic of any kind. I simply detest bad science. Or illogical assumption that is unsupported by fact. I won’t even start on the issues surrounding global warming – that must wait for a separate post… (Yes, we’re getting hotter. Right now. It’s happened in the past though. Yes, I agree that we humans are doing things that seriously don’t help this situation. But the worst thing we can do is to falsely overstate or make claims that are unsupported by fact. That only gives the ostrich-heads fuel to oppose any changes in behavior that would be beneficial.]
Ok, back to clouds and rain. Yes, stealing content (movies, music, etc.) and storing it in the cloud for the sole purpose of giving it away (thereby depriving the content owner of their rightful income), or even worse, selling it and keeping all the profit, is illegal and morally wrong. Period. But at this time we are killing the messenger… When hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, I heard a lot of blame going around, but I can’t recall a single instance of anyone screaming at the clouds – even though that’s precisely where all the water came from (well, to be completely accurate the wind that pushed the storm surge caused a lot of the flooding as well). So why is it that we are so up in arms today about the storage facilities for all the ‘rain’ that is inside our digital clouds?
How do we really measure and judge that Apple’s iCloud, for example, is a ‘good guy’ and 4Shared is a ‘bad guy’? Reputation? There are no large scale factual measurements of the real files stored in either site. There are a lot of assumptions that certain sites, such as PirateBay, MegaUpload (now defunct), and others cater to those individuals who steal content and upload it for either real profit or ‘denial-of-income’ attacks on the rightful content owners. However, if it was possible, I would bet that a really large amount of technically illegally obtained or shared content is sitting right now in iCloud, BoxNet, DropBox and many other sites that have the ‘white hat’ shine on them today…
The truth is that, barring any real hardcore file analysis measurement, it is impossible to say what is where. In fact, many of the so-called ‘white hat’ sites are actually more opaque than the so-called ‘pirate sites’ – in that the pirate sites often allow public scouring and downloading after paying an access fee – while DropBox and other similar sites basically host private cyberlockers. Now while technically the terms of service (and they vary here, I am not quoting from any one particular site) don’t allow wholesale sharing of your password, so in theory an account holder of a BoxNet account can’t put up 10,000 music files and then post the password openly on the internet for anyone to download – there are rather simple technical workarounds for that. To avoid a public spanking I won’t divulge the details, but as long as a user was willing to support even a single computer that ‘reflected’ the private account through an anonymous connection… well you get the picture. Any reasonably clever 14-year-old can pull this off…
The real philosophical trouble here is that the current heavy-handed legislation that is being used to shut down sites such as MegaUpload are based on ‘bad science’. These kinds of laws can open a very big door through which truckloads of ‘unintended consequences’ can drive through… Even a short term shutdown of a site can financially ruin that business, whether or not the action is later supported in court and rescinded. How would you feel if YouTube was seized and closed by the Justice Department? The difference between YouTube and MegaUpload is only one of perceived scale of ‘obnoxious behavior’… copyrighted material is illegally posted on YouTube every minute – the difference is that YouTube makes a serious and honest effort to take down such content when found or notified. But still just a feeling or perception of behavior should not be sufficient to warrant drastic actions such as a complete site shutdown without a significant and factual backing – which is not the case with MegaUpload. Remember, this is at this time an allegation and a set of indictments – that have not been proven in court.
I am offering no defense for this particular business, and they may very well be guilty as charged – the issue I bring to the table for discussion is the general premise that ‘cyberlockers are bad things.’ That is just patently false. We need to refine our legal efforts to address the ‘real’ criminal aspect and actions, and find a way to prove that factually so that when indictments are brought forward they are done so based on logic and evidence. It’s a very tricky slope, and one that will take much thought. At the core of this whole issue is the need to somehow inspect content, either on it’s way up to the cloud, or inside the cloud. And that can clearly make Pandora look like the owner of a very tiny box in comparison… Who gets to look? How is content assessed to be ‘legal’? What happens if this data is used for alternate means (the huge current issue of data accumulation by websites for targeted advertising which is unapproved by users)? For instance, the so-called ‘registration’ required by the Egyptian state police of all internet users in that country is in and of itself not necessarily an evil thing… the use of that data by internal security forces to disappear, harm and even kill people based on that knowlege – and the subsequent monitoring of data transmitted by those users – is unquestionably repugnant.
Unchecked, the current form of legislative overkill and heavy-handed action could put a serious dent in the functionality of the cloud infrastructure. This is already obvious if you dig around and see the amount of legal hours being billed to Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple and others that host large cyberlocker sites. They are worried – and rightfully so. Our US government is not alone in this type of behavior, similar actions are either on the books or are contemplated in many countries. As noted, some cultures are already far more ‘policed’ today than the USA. Asian countries in general – whose base cultures are more consensus oriented than Western European and American cultures – already allow their governments a great latitude in monitoring and inspection of their respective private citizens’ web behavior.
I don’t want to see modern technology used to easily deny rightful income to artists and entertainment companies. I do want to ensure that anyone that uploads or stores content of their own (and this included purchased copyrighted material that falls under fair use policy for limited personal sharing, backup and viewing on alternative devices) is not subject to penalty. What if I create or purchase art that others may find offensive? The First Ammendment easily affords protection to speech and printed material – the laws are much less tested in regards to clouds…
In general, I hope to promote thought, discussion and eventually a dialog that will improve our collective understanding and actions towards how these new wonderful technical entities in our lives are matched to our laws, morals and cultural norms. It is an adjustment – the rate of technical innovation has vastly outstripped the pace of development of our legal and cultural systems. But let’s have some open and honest conversation about these issues before we end up living with badly designed rules that are unwittingly harmful to many innocents.
Parasam 