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WHILE THE ISSUE of copyright reform was being debated, Kim Dotcom was wooing Mona and making his first visits to New Zealand, paid for by Megaupload's growing wealth and revenue stream.

Meanwhile smaller operators were piggybacking on the service that would make him a fortune, acting as if change had already come. Hana Beshara (or Queen Phara as she became known) stomped her way into the pirating scene in 2008 with NinjaVideo, which offered high-quality documentaries, movies, sports and television. The website was bold about its purpose. Shortly after it launched, Beshara issued a "manifesto" explaining what she was doing and why, addressed to "everyone that's ever watched a video on-line", uploaded or downloaded content, sold infringing material or who crept about in cinemas with cameras recording the latest Hollywood offerings. It was also for the "lawyers sending out notices; this is to movie producers and studio heads; to all the scriptwriters and the actors".

In the manifesto, posted online as an audio file, Beshara spoke of wanting to offer a place where information was free — not just the latest Hollywood hits, but knowledge.

"We're realists," she said. "We know what brings people to NinjaVideo ... it is zero hour releases on TV and movies. But while they're here they can learn — from our documentaries to the depth of our forum we are a classroom in so many ways, as well as an outlet for your general entertainment. We did this very consciously." If it was just about pulling in visitors, she said, the website could offer a third as much content. It chose not to. "We wanted to educate." She said the business was unreasonably skewed against those who could not afford its products, saying the "American pastime of going to the movies" had become a "luxury".

"You say that piracy is killing you. But do you honestly think that the thousand people who watched a movie online would be the same thousand that would go to the theaters if that option were taken from them?"

Beshara's manifesto claimed the world was awash with more important issues — and filled with people unaware of those issues. She railed against Hollywood for feeding the appetite for its products with celebrity culture, compelling the public to "pay out their retirement funds in popcorn prices" for "condescending pandering". She said "sites like NinjaVideo force innovation upon you" and it was time it embraced change.

Her generation was an angry generation, Beshara said. The moving picture industry had flared bright with positive change then devolved, shutting out the internet generation by restricting access to content — whether it be entertainment or current affairs — which should belong to the public.

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