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Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy

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Re: Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy

#201

Post by noonespecial »

troll24601 wrote: post #189
molmalo wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment reminds me of Martin Niemöller: First they came for the communists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak out because I was Protestant. Then they came for me and the…

It's disgusting that you chose to reappropriate that quote in this context. If you read the indictment, it's clear that this was the purposeful monetization of pirated material. It wasn't a few users who uploaded some things. It was a criminal site, operating in bad faith, committing a multitude of crimes. You should seriously be ashamed of yourself for comparing those famous words to seven criminals (who have strong…

They're not "criminals" until after the trial. This is the problem people here are having with this.

Site confiscated -> branded criminal -> trial. Is assbackwards.

Re: Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy

#202

Post by nl »

newhouseb wrote: post #126
e1ven wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

This sounds like a somewhat clever loophole around DMCA requirements. Host the same/duplicate file at an approximately infinite number of different URLs and take them down one by one as DMCA requests come in for specific links. This seems like a someone complicated loophole to write around because even if the DMCA was changed to allow takedowns of media and it's duplicates (if it doesn't already) you could combinator…

That's not how the DMCA works - you can notify the site of the content and require them to remove the content and/or any links to it.

Read some samples from ChillingEffects: http://www.chillingeffects.org/dmca512/notice.cgi

Re: Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy

#203

Post by libraryatnight »

molmalo wrote: post #145
noonespecial wrote: post #95

Earlier 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?

Your comment reminds me of Martin Niemöller: First they came for the communists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak out because I was Protestant. Then they came for me and the…

I liked the Alpha Centauri quote a lot so I searched it and I think the beginning of the quote is just as interesting: "As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century..."

Re: Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy

#204

Post by troll24601 »

noonespecial wrote: post #201
troll24601 wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's disgusting that you chose to reappropriate that quote in this context. If you read the indictment, it's clear that this was the purposeful monetization of pirated material. It wasn't a few users who uploaded some things. It was a criminal site, operating in bad faith, committing a multitude of crimes. You should seriously be ashamed of yourself for comparing those famous words to seven criminals (who have strong…

They're not "criminals" until after the trial. This is the problem people here are having with this. Site confiscated -> branded criminal -> trial. Is ass backwards.

KIM DOTCOM is a convicted criminal. (securities fraud, embezzling, and some other crap)

He's about to be tried again, for another crime. But he's already a criminal.

The person I responded to was comparing mass genocide to the orderly trial of a criminal who is suspected of committing more crimes. That disgusts me. It casually trivializes massive horrors.

Re: Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy

#205

Post by MrMatters »

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 probably not the average MU user, but 99% of the stuff I used it for pretty legitimate. Game files/recordings, map files, photo albums people were too lazy to upload one by one, personal videos between friends we didn't want to upload somewhere public like YT, etc.

This is all anecdotal and I probably agree with you that the average user most likely just used it to download music and pirated content, but I do think you're overlooking a ton of legitimate usages as well.

Re: Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy

#207

Post by adestefan »

gte910h wrote: post #178
adestefan wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you have enough work to keep you busy all the time it's easy to pick out all the winners.

Or, people do really believe when their government tells them a person is guilty.

As someone who has sat on a Federal jury that is definitely not true. As a matter of fact there were people that were outright convinced against the government and were only swayed when it was shown to be a pretty solid open and shut case.

Re: Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy

#208

Post by libraryatnight »

troll24601 wrote: post #189
molmalo wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment reminds me of Martin Niemöller: First they came for the communists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak out because I was Protestant. Then they came for me and the…

It's disgusting that you chose to reappropriate that quote in this context. If you read the indictment, it's clear that this was the purposeful monetization of pirated material. It wasn't a few users who uploaded some things. It was a criminal site, operating in bad faith, committing a multitude of crimes. You should seriously be ashamed of yourself for comparing those famous words to seven criminals (who have strong…

You wouldn't say that if, in years ahead, you find yourself looking back and realizing acts like this were the beginning of a tight grip on information and freedom from a world where you're afraid to do much of anything anywhere in the world for fear of your business being shut down, being arrested, and treated as guilty until proven innocent, you probably wouldn't feel this was a disgusting comparison.

I understand that it's easy to get swept away in fearful hyperbole, but it's not a bad thing to keep a cynical eye on the actions of a government, and not a bad thing to look to history at its worst for warning of a future we'd like to avoid. It's not a 1:1 comparison he's done, but it's a valid concern.

Re: Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy

#209

Post by adestefan »

DennisP wrote: post #192
andrewfelix wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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.

The Berne Convention stipulates that the laws of where the copyright is registered takes precedent.

Re: Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy

#210

Post by troll24601 »

libraryatnight wrote: post #208
troll24601 wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's disgusting that you chose to reappropriate that quote in this context. If you read the indictment, it's clear that this was the purposeful monetization of pirated material. It wasn't a few users who uploaded some things. It was a criminal site, operating in bad faith, committing a multitude of crimes. You should seriously be ashamed of yourself for comparing those famous words to seven criminals (who have strong…

You wouldn't say that if, in years ahead, you find yourself looking back and realizing acts like this were the beginning of a tight grip on information and freedom from a world where you're afraid to do much of anything anywhere in the world for fear of your business being shut down, being arrested, and treated as guilty until proven innocent, you probably wouldn't feel this was a disgusting comparison. I understand…

Nothing about this case makes me fear your future.

I read the indictment. The cause for fear simply isn't there.

It's useless to pretend you're keeping an eye on the government when all you're really doing is getting a tiny shred of information and then getting hysterical because of it.

Please don't pat yourselves on the back simply because you're able to get hysterical with your willfully ignorant, less-than-half-baked ideas about what happened. You aren't doing something noble, you're doing the opposite. You're making it hard to fight REAL fights because you're using energy on bullshit.

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