Yesterday the entre file share site Megaupload was taken down for hosting copyrighted material.
(
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/21/te...ref=technology)
In that a large source of pirated material has been eliminated this could benefit designers and publishers of paper models.
However, it also means that the existence of one of the means paper modelers share legitimate material is threatened, since other file sharing sites are also at risk for being taken completely down for the same reasons that Megaupload was taken down.
In the long run sites that host or even refer material were the copy right is ambiguous, or vintage material where the copyright has been abandoned (such as advertisting material, or where the copy right holders no longer exist to get a release from will be of having their owners subjected to criminal prosecution. Site owners will be responsible for everything that is posted to their sites by third parties.
Access to vintage materials from the 1930's and '40s which no one still has a commercial interest in will be forbidden, since there are no explicit documents making the material copyright free. And it would not be worth the legal costs in most cases hunting down the owners, or for large corporate owners if they are located, to take the time to release that material to the public domain. It would be cheaper for them just to ignore it and in effect lock the materail away forever.
We have already seen that this can lead to the shut down of what had been one of the best paper model sites on the web. Herr Pleiner closed his karton model forum since he could not be sure of complying with all German laws governing internet media presentation.
Even releasing a free model to the internet may become an expensive process requiring recourse to attorneys in order to make the item free from copyright restrictions.
For example most of the donated models in the download section are probably not acompanied by extensive legal documentation about their free status, therefore their copy right status is ambiguous, putting just about every one associated with them, from the designer for not following proper proceedures, to the site host to the downloader, could be at risk of legal persecution under laws currently being considered but not yet enacted (SOPA)
This is something to think and decide how it will affect your hobby, the way you obtain entertainment and perhaps even the way you do your job.
If this is a concern to you go to Google or Wiki and see what they have posted on the subject, and consider signing one of the petitions or download a letter you can sent to your senator and congressman.