Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy • Hacker News Board

Re: Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy

#51

Post by antoko » Thu, Jan 19, 2012, 8:39 PM UTC

endersshadow wrote: post #25

gry wrote: post #8

SOPA 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…

MegaUpload are foreign. They're based in Hong Kong.

Also there were pretty high profile domain seizures done in two bouts over the last two years. ICE/DOJ seized domains (google it) - some of those were foreign based but with .com or .net. (I don't recall if any were foreign TLDs) There already doing anything they want anyway - and happily ignoring any due process - codifying these actions into law with PIPA/SOPA is just the icing on the cake.

Re: Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy

#52

Post by e1ven » Thu, Jan 19, 2012, 8:40 PM UTC

AlexMuir wrote: post #39

At the risk of megadownvoting here... Megaupload never complied with DMCA requests - I made several as part of some research and never received any response. The site charged for access to, and provided advertising around, pirated content. The site paid people (users/staff - it's a fine line) to provide popular content. It went to extraordinary lengths to hide the identity of its operators. Now if people believe that…

I'm more upset with the precedent than I am with the particular site.

I've never made a DMCA request against them, but my understanding from the DoJ presser was that they did comply with the letter- They removed the links that were sent. They just didn't necessarily remove all other links to the same file.

When you filed yours, did you follow legal procedure, and go through their registered DMCA agent with paper mail, etc? (I'm not implying you didn't, I'm trying to understand this whole mess)

Let's say for the sake of discussion that these were "Bad Guys", and the site was used for infringing purposes.

If they're following the US law, they still ought to be safe. You can arrest people for breaking laws, but not for being assholes.

Re: Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy

#53

Post by kayoone » Thu, Jan 19, 2012, 8:42 PM UTC

Kimble goes to jail once again it seems.. I remember people downvoting me in an earlier bit about megaupload where i said that this guy has his hands dirty and should be avoided. People claimed i shouldnt judge him by his past crimes...well there you go ;)

Re: Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy

#54

Post by zotz » Thu, Jan 19, 2012, 8:42 PM UTC

AlexMuir wrote: post #39

At the risk of megadownvoting here... Megaupload never complied with DMCA requests - I made several as part of some research and never received any response. The site charged for access to, and provided advertising around, pirated content. The site paid people (users/staff - it's a fine line) to provide popular content. It went to extraordinary lengths to hide the identity of its operators. Now if people believe that…

> it was hosting pirated content. Not torrents, not links. AVI files of films. AND THEN CHARGING FOR ACCESS.

Good. More and more of it is happening all over the net.

I hope it drives the studios, MPAA and RIAA out of business forever. The force of the US government will only last them so long.

Re: Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy

#55

Post by e1ven » Thu, Jan 19, 2012, 8:43 PM UTC

qeorge wrote: post #48

e1ven wrote: post #28

Wow. 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…

I don't disagree with you, but its hard to deny that MegaUpload was full of copyrighted material. I always got the impression they were complying with the law in the most minimal sense, but had no real interest in preventing copyrighted works from being hosted on their site. In some ways MegaUpload reminds me of YouTube. Its hard to deny that they got big by providing access to copyrighted material, but have since be…

That's the thing, right?

"Complying in a minimal sense" is still complying. It shouldn't matter if their hearts were as dark as pitch.

We can't legislate the hearts of men. We can only use their actions in determining their fate.

Re: Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy

#56

Post by Zirro » Thu, Jan 19, 2012, 8:43 PM UTC

rplnt wrote: post #47

AlexMuir wrote: post #39

At the risk of megadownvoting here... Megaupload never complied with DMCA requests - I made several as part of some research and never received any response. The site charged for access to, and provided advertising around, pirated content. The site paid people (users/staff - it's a fine line) to provide popular content. It went to extraordinary lengths to hide the identity of its operators. Now if people believe that…

I too am glad that someone finally went for the big guys. Rapidshare should be next in my opinion. They only make money on piracy and they know it. On the other hand, I hate when p2p networks are targeted (thepiratebay for example). Sure, they too make some money but nowhere close to paid sites like the megaupload and they don't even host the pirated content.

Indeed, when a site built around (partially) illegal content being shared, it's OK with me if they earn just enough not to lose money on operating the site. However, I do not believe you should profit off the content of others.

Re: Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy

#57

Post by nona » Thu, Jan 19, 2012, 8:43 PM UTC

larrik wrote: post #16

nphrk wrote: post #5

Why did they charge the graphic designer and the developers?

I assume because they needed to grab everyone they could in one shot, since they are outside of the U.S., and it can turn out that one or more of them are in fact guilty. Otherwise, they can just disappear and you'll never get the chance again. This actually makes sense if you consider that these laws are aimed at the mafia, and that there is no penalty to the U.S. government for being wrong. EDIT: I find it interest…

Being overzealous, heavy-handed and causing a lot of collateral damage goes right against the presumption of innocence. Evil in my book.

Re: Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy

#58

Post by nknight » Thu, Jan 19, 2012, 8:43 PM UTC

ethank wrote: post #41

lhnz wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. I never said that. I just insinuated they were one of the parties that would go after the site. 2. Please don't walk around calling people naive. It's offensive and unnecessary.

Not trying to be offensive, but seeing the RIAA thrown around as this big boogeyman is annoying, and also seeing it stand in for labels, artists even more so. One of the biggest foes for MegaUpload was porn, who have much more money but less lobbying clout than the RIAA.

The RIAA and major labels are one and the same. It is disingenuous at best to try and distinguish one from the other, when the board of directors consists entirely of label representatives.

Meanwhile, precious few artists whine about piracy like the RIAA does, you hear a lot more whining about the labels, because they're the ones screwing artists.

Re: Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy

#59

Post by The_Sponge » Thu, Jan 19, 2012, 8:44 PM UTC

AlexMuir wrote: post #39

At the risk of megadownvoting here... Megaupload never complied with DMCA requests - I made several as part of some research and never received any response. The site charged for access to, and provided advertising around, pirated content. The site paid people (users/staff - it's a fine line) to provide popular content. It went to extraordinary lengths to hide the identity of its operators. Now if people believe that…

1GB per file of reliable, fast storage. You can bet we passed larger files over it.

Re: Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy

#60

Post by rorrr » Thu, Jan 19, 2012, 8:44 PM UTC

AlexMuir wrote: post #39

At the risk of megadownvoting here... Megaupload never complied with DMCA requests - I made several as part of some research and never received any response. The site charged for access to, and provided advertising around, pirated content. The site paid people (users/staff - it's a fine line) to provide popular content. It went to extraordinary lengths to hide the identity of its operators. Now if people believe that…

> fill it with full length DVD rips

As long as users do it, and the site takes them down when requested, I'm pretty sure it's legal under DMCA.