Pissed off mini-pirates whine “Where’s My Money?”

In an earlier blog post I wrote about Piracy’s Profit Pyramid and attempted to explain how cyberlockers operated much like a pyramid scheme, a business model that’s served as a catalyst for the explosion in online piracy for profit.  With the feds smacking down Megaupload, other similar sites are scurrying like cockroaches to cover their tracks.  Some of the most popular cyberlocker sites (Filesonic, Fileserve, Uploading, etc.) have begun purging pirated files and have discontinued “affiliate” programs and cash payouts, leaving their pirate partners empty-handed and, consequently,  very grumpy. Evidence of their growing displeasure is morphing across pirate forums around the web. The irony is beyond sweet:

Even some of the pirates can’t seem to believe the hypocrisy of their uploading peers: 

Filesonic payout for piracy

These pirate forums also feature threads where thieves post screen caps of their earnings totals from various sites, in a game of  “whose is bigger?.”  Looking at some of profit totals (wonder if they are reporting to the IRS), it’s no wonder these mini-pirates are unhappy.  Their express ride to piracy riches has suddenly turned bumpy, if not disappeared altogether.  Take a look at these totals ($26, 477!) and you will see why people were so eager to join the piracy game and why they’re so unhappy to see it disappear.

Being a cyberlocker affiliate brought in the bucks.

Megaupload's demise appears to have derailed the pirate gravy train

Profits varied, from hundreds to thousands for uploading stolen content

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Pirate’s Lament….

Reaction to Megaupload’s demise has been met with disbelief and anger among those who run sites offering “shared” illegal downloads of films.  Apparently they are upset that it will be more difficult to openly engage in piracy going forward (and that their bank accounts could suffer as a result).  Here’s a status update (translated into English from Portuguese) from a popular Blogger-hosted site that offers infringing downloads for hundreds of films.  Something may have been lost in the translation, but it appears the site’s editor is not pleased.

Pirate blog sites lament the passing of Megaupload.

They provide a cyberlocker status update for the various popular cyberlocker sites frequented by pirates and finish with this note of sadness:

What is the fate of the World Downloads?
We are all seeing the world of downloads is fading slowly, one day at a time. What we, and you fear the most visitors, is nearby.
We can not say anything, what we can do is wait and pray, that this does not pass like mere bad memories,

 

I guess this is what happens when your house of (pirate) cards comes crashing down.

Here’s another Blogger-hosted site that tried not to skip a beat offering visitors a “tutorial” on how to download pirated movies off another popular cyberlocker site (Wupload.com) (post is translated from Portuguese) along with the assurance: “relax, I have all the movies on a hard drive…”

Blog site offers visitors a handy How-To for another pirate cyberlocker