What's happening to the Megaupload databases? Are they being confiscated?
I never used the service much myself, but can you imagine the amount of people that could potentially be indicted by their download history?
Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy
191–200 of 357 posts
Re: Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy
#192Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't understand this. Megaupload is based in Hong Kong. How does the DMCA apply to them? The site operators were arrested in New Zealand. Most aren't even U.S. citizens: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/01/megaupload-indicted... Now they're being charged by the FBI. How did it happen that the entire world is supposed to comply with U.S. law?
"The arrests were carried out by Organised & Financial Crime Agency New Zealand (OFCANZ) and police, following a mutual legal assistance request from the United States" NZ Herald has more: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&obj...
Your link says the state of Virginia is claiming jurisdiction because some of the servers were there. The lesson I guess is if you're going to run a site like this, don't host it in America.
There's no indication that any laws of New Zealand were broken. The NZ cops simply cooperated in enforcing U.S. law.
Re: Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy
#193Earlier quoted context omitted.
First they come for the sites that are 90/10 pirate to legit. Seems reasonable. Then 80/20. Then 70/30. Now they're getting the process streamlined. How far will they go? 20/80? 10/90? When will it be too much? When does it become un reasonable?
I agree with your thought process-- however, there is no reason to talk about what % of the service was used for piracy and what % wasn't. Non-owner/operator users should be viewed as completely separate from the owners and operators' and their actions. It doesn't matter if 99.9% of the users are pirating content, as long as the owners & operators were not engaging in illegal activities (including knowingly aiding pi…
I'm pretty sure that the Feds didn't get copies of emails from Eric Schmidt saying that they need to fix the audio/video synchronization on the Sopranos... or that they need to rate-limit DMCA takedowns so they don't interfere with growth... or that they should ensure that when they do takedowns that they don't take EVERY copy down.
It's a specious comparison, made possible only because almost nobody on HN bothered to read the indictment before they got mad.
Re: Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy
#194LOL if there is a perfect case for SOPA to be passed this is one one site that should be taken down. Are you guys kidding me ? This should be in our favor. You take down this one but this one is totally different then say "google". Show them the difference and SOPA will stay away from the real websites that matter.
Re: Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy
#195Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
If you bothered to read the indictment, you'd see they weren't complying and that they were actively facilitating.
Re: Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy
#196At 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 don't understand this. Megaupload is based in Hong Kong. How does the DMCA apply to them? The site operators were arrested in New Zealand. Most aren't even U.S. citizens: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/01/megaupload-indicted... Now they're being charged by the FBI. How did it happen that the entire world is supposed to comply with U.S. law?
Re: Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy
#197Wow how ironic - one of the heads of MegaLoad was a musician backed by the RIAA. His wife being an immensely popular pop/soul singer, Alicia Keyes.
Re: Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy
#198Wow. 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…
Your first two numbered points are not even close to true. If you bothered to read the indictment, you'd know this.
Sadly, you (like most of HN) are raging without bothering to get any real information first.
Re: Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy
#199A graphic designer was one of those arrested... I have a lump in my throat, I thought down in the pacific we were safe from your batshit crazy FBI.
It's probably Finn, Kims favourite designer who works for K. since forever.
The press in Czech republic says his name is Julius Bencko, Slovak guy.
Re: Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy
#200Like the War on Drugs, it's almost quaint how the US government either isn't aware, or doesn't care that they're playing a game of whack-a-mole. As long as the the bureaucracy is strengthened, and the lobbyist checks keep rolling in, and everyone keeps their jobs, then everything is good.
Not sure that you should be so confident that this will always be a game of whack-a-mole. We're in the wild-west days of the Internet but the government could end up controlling it very tightly in the long run. Look at the latest news out of Iran to see just how monitored and controlled the Internet can become. There's no reason it can't happen here too.