Who needs SOPA when we have ICE?
Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy
21–30 of 357 posts
Re: Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy
#22From DOJ Presser:
For example, when notified by a rights holder that a file contained infringing content, the indictment alleges that the conspirators would disable only a single link to the file, deliberately and deceptively leaving the infringing content in place to make it seamlessly available to millions of users to access through any one of the many duplicate links available for that file.
I assume the DMCA specifies content removal not removal of links/access to the content? It puts places like Dropbox in an interesting place. If you share a link with someone and the link is to something from "your own" storage space, and a rights holder issues a takedown (for the sharing aspect) is the company also supposed to remove the content from "your storage" assuming it is the same 1s and 0s? Should they have a right to if it is only you with access?
Re: Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy
#23Is this the Megaupload run by the producer Swizz Beatz posted on here only a little earlier? http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3484419 So the RIAA are going after their own artists for allegedly stealing money from their own artists? What a weird industry this is...
It is naive to think it was only the RIAA or associated lobbying groups going after them.
Re: Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy
#24FBI doesn't have any 'job' other than chasing down bunch of movie "pirates"?
Re: Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy
#25SOPA and PIPA would help how? This appears successful without them.
Edit: Leaving the original text so as not to confuse the conversation. Megaupload is a foreign (to the US) site with a US TLD, not a US-domestic site. The arrests were made around the globe, but mostly in New Zealand. The FBI may have initiated the indictment, but extradition applies, as does the Berne Convention.
SOPA and PIPA are intended to address issues with foreign-hosted sites being used by Americans to pirate American copyrighted works. MegaUpload is a domestic outfit, so they fall under existing copyright law, including DMCA.
The issue with fighting foreign-based sites is that they don't fall under US jurisdiction. Up till now, the RIAA and MPAA have taken to suing Americans using those services. However, that's not really putting a dent in piracy. So, they came up with SOPA and PIPA. Of course, how do you stop Americans from visiting foreign sites which you have no jurisdiction over? Using DNS filtering is the answer they came up with. Of course, they left the language fairly broad, and now they've stricken that part from the bill.
The real issue with SOPA and PIPA is the removal of due process. Since the laws deal with foreign entities, though, the waters get muddied.
Re: Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy
#26So in terms of precedent, if dropbox can be used to store copyright files, could they also be shut down on a whim like this?
I think it's worse that dropbox dedupes files, which means that they(dropbox) already have infrastructure that could seriously combat their use in infringement. I do wonder how this plays into the whole Swizz Beats is CEO news.
I don't think dedupe seriously combats use in infringement - it just forces pirates to repack/recompress their infringing content into many different forms, which pretty much happens anyway since lots of "torrent warez" groups like to put their names and spam links on everything.
From a legal/rights-holder standpoint that's a double-edged sword - it could be argued that because Dropbox dedupe files, they have a head start on DMCA compliance, but it could also be argued that the technical infrastructure means they should be better at removing infringing content.
Re: Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy
#27Why did they charge the graphic designer and the developers?
They're probably listed as officers of the corporations.
Re: Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy
#28Wow. This is a really interesting situation; I can't agree with this action at all.
1) The site complied with DMCA regulations, and removed material when asked.
2) The site did not directly promote piracy, which was Grokster decision.
3) The listed employees are all (or nearly all) not US citizens, so this required international cooperation, and extradition over copyright?
From my perspective it looks like they were follow the letter of the law on all, or nearly all counts. The DOJ seems to have decided that if they can't really charge them with something specific, they'll go upstream, and charge them with vague broad things.
This makes me rather worried that even if you run a legitimate business, and comply with the law, if the DOJ decides they don't like you, you're done for.
WTF?
Re: Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy
#29As I said, the government could already do this, which is why they are doing it in nations that work with the US:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3388171
I also wrote my congressman about SOPA:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3483539
Man I sometimes wish that things that go against groupthink in HN were addressed too :)
Re: Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy
#30Not sure why anyone's drawing comparisons to Dropbox. MegaUpload was fundamentally a paywall in front of everything you can possibly imagine pirating. Basically a direct-download TPB with heavy handed incentives to convince people to pay to do it.
As a legitimate file sharing service, which to a very small extent Dropbox is, it was absolutely terrible - wait xx seconds or minutes to download a file at a reduced speed.