The Rest in Peace Thread (RIP)

[midnight rain]

Originally Posted by Zer0

If Mediafire goes I will cry. We could be left with nothing but Rapidshare

I think Mediafire's a little more straight than Megaupload was, they seem to willingly comply with law enforcement about any sort of piracy. Plus, they're based in the U.S. and yet the FBI went after Megaupload, so they seem pretty clean.

Rapidshare sucks donkey dick.

[Freebase Dali]

I'm thinking (possibly hoping) that if the scare spreads, it will be the big sites that go dark, as it were. There are a lot of smaller, lesser-known hosting sites out there that probably don't worry so much about being nabbed, and people that want to file share will do it even without Fileserve, Mediafire, etc.
You tend to see it with these kinds of things... the most popular ones are targeted, and it just makes way for some of the lesser known hosts to shine. Probably a never-ending cycle in the long run, but there's so much money in that advertising market that I don't think it will ever really go away.

The gov would have to go balls deep into regulatory interference and traipse over all sorts of freedoms to nip it in the bud. I think the recent back-lash over SOPA and the result of that backlash gives you a pretty good idea that big bro is only willing to take things so far before their interests get too muddied in political waters, with the right kind of backlash. The kind of backlash that has dollars behind it, I.E. Google, etc.
If it had only been some hippies protesting in city parks, it wouldn't have changed anything.

Alternately, there's the pressure from the entertainment industry... but what we have here is the entertainment industry's dwindling dollars versus the dollars of corporations that run the very technology and ideas that are making the entertainment industry's dollars negligible in the first place. If I were a betting government, I'd bet on the lobbyists who sided with Google, Microsoft, and the other folks who don't want SOPA.
So, I'm holding out hope.

[VEGANGELICA]

I just heard that singer Whitney Houston died today at age 48:

Singer Whitney Houston dies at 48 - CBS News



I actually had no idea that she was using drugs, which I assume must have taken a toll on her body, not just her career:

By the end of her career, Houston became a stunning cautionary tale of the toll of drug use. Her album sales plummeted and the hits stopped coming; her once serene image was shattered by a wild demeanor and bizarre public appearances. She confessed to abusing cocaine, marijuana and pills, and her once pristine voice became raspy and hoarse, unable to hit the high notes as she had during her prime.

"The biggest devil is me. I'm either my best friend or my worst enemy," Houston told ABC's Diane Sawyer in an infamous 2002 interview with then-husband Brown by her side.

That's very sad...to be one's own worst enemy. I'm sorry she had to deal with that.

[Alfred]

I thought she was older than 48.

[CanwllCorfe]

R.i.p.

[gengen]

we are sad to hear about whitney passing

[CanwllCorfe]

she dead? man dats cray.

[duga]

This is sad news. More than most pop stars, I always hoped things would get better for her again. Her voice was pretty epic.

RIP

[Franco Pepe Kalle]

I miss Whitney so much. I am feel for her family. RIP Whitney Houson.

[ThePhanastasio]

Definitely R.I.P., and very sad.

It's always exceptionally heartbreaking to me when musicians pass just before the Grammy's, actors before the Oscars, football guys before the Super Bowl, etc.

I really hoped that she'd be able to turn her life around, but addiction is tough. Very sad day.