Megaupload programmer goes to prison for one year
1–10 of 159 posts
Re: Megaupload programmer goes to prison for one year
#2This just seems ridiculous to me. I may well get downvoted, but it needs saying. Why do 99% of the world's governments seem completely retarded when it comes to copyright laws?
How many tens of millions in legal resources were expended in bringing 'justice' here? And what does the outcome even matter? Good job, tens of millions down the drain for one year of an Estonian's time? The system would surely be better served if they just handed those millions to the actual copyright holders?
The only real victory (if that's what they'd like to call it) is having taken the site down in the first place, not that that did a single thing to kerb 'illegal' filesharing...
The industry has moved on and adapted just fine.
Re: Megaupload programmer goes to prison for one year
#3... what the hell?
And they're trying to extradite Kim Dotcom to the US as well!
At the time of launch, I thought how cool it'd have been to work on the project, ouch.
Re: Megaupload programmer goes to prison for one year
#4This just seems ridiculous to me. I may well get downvoted, but it needs saying. Why do 99% of the world's governments seem completely retarded when it comes to copyright laws? How many tens of millions in legal resources were expended in bringing 'justice' here? And what does the outcome even matter? Good job, tens of millions down the drain for one year of an Estonian's time? The system would surely be better serve…
Well, the idea of criminal justice, besides "fairness"/"retribution" (which I think is barbaric), is that it discourages future criminal action by others, who have more reason to believe they would be similarly punished if caught.
Re: Megaupload programmer goes to prison for one year
#5This just seems ridiculous to me. I may well get downvoted, but it needs saying. Why do 99% of the world's governments seem completely retarded when it comes to copyright laws? How many tens of millions in legal resources were expended in bringing 'justice' here? And what does the outcome even matter? Good job, tens of millions down the drain for one year of an Estonian's time? The system would surely be better serve…
They are not retarded. They are just money driven IMHO.
And I bet the story behind this is no worse than the plot of House of Cards.
Re: Megaupload programmer goes to prison for one year
#6This just seems ridiculous to me. I may well get downvoted, but it needs saying. Why do 99% of the world's governments seem completely retarded when it comes to copyright laws? How many tens of millions in legal resources were expended in bringing 'justice' here? And what does the outcome even matter? Good job, tens of millions down the drain for one year of an Estonian's time? The system would surely be better serve…
My guess is that their strategy is to create a chilling effect by making an example of this guy.
From their perspective, if smart people become more frightened to take on projects like this, their money was well spent.
$10M is lunch money here.
Re: Megaupload programmer goes to prison for one year
#7There's a lot of lip service but I still don't get why a programmer need to go to jail for this crap.
Are they prosecuting everyone that ever worked for or did business with megaupload now?
Because that seems a bit shady.
Re: Megaupload programmer goes to prison for one year
#8This just seems ridiculous to me. I may well get downvoted, but it needs saying. Why do 99% of the world's governments seem completely retarded when it comes to copyright laws? How many tens of millions in legal resources were expended in bringing 'justice' here? And what does the outcome even matter? Good job, tens of millions down the drain for one year of an Estonian's time? The system would surely be better serve…
My guess is that their strategy is to create a chilling effect by making an example of this guy. From their perspective, if smart people become more frightened to take on projects like this, their money was well spent. $10M is lunch money here.
It seems to infuriate me and make me more likely to ask to be payed in cash when doing business with companies that seem to be in the gray area of the law.
But in no way will I cave to this mafia style behavior.
Do I now risk going to jail if any of the people o worked with use my software for something illegal?
Re: Megaupload programmer goes to prison for one year
#9I really dislike the extra-territorial aspect of it.
From what I understand the Netherlands copyright law is more lenient than the US law. For instance downloading copyrighted material was legal until very recently. So downloading something from Megaupload was hardly a crime there... http://www.zdnet.com/article/downloading-pirate-material-fin...
So you could do something which is legal, or illegal but not criminal offense (civil) in the country where you live, but if it displeases the US, then suddenly they can throw you in jail in a foreign country (the US) where you have no ties.
I break Chinese laws on a daily basis (Tank Man!). Why should I care about US law, since I do not live there, nor am I a citizen? It's not like I can vote for these laws...
Re: Megaupload programmer goes to prison for one year
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
My guess is that their strategy is to create a chilling effect by making an example of this guy. From their perspective, if smart people become more frightened to take on projects like this, their money was well spent. $10M is lunch money here.
It seems to infuriate me and make me more likely to ask to be payed in cash when doing business with companies that seem to be in the gray area of the law. But in no way will I cave to this mafia style behavior. Do I now risk going to jail if any of the people o worked with use my software for something illegal?
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