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Megaupload programmer goes to prison for one year

justice.gov

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Re: Megaupload programmer goes to prison for one year

#11

Post by gambiting »

jackjeff wrote: post #9

I 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 o…

Imagine if it worked the other way around.....if one day a US court got a request from Saudi Arabia asking to jail one of US citizens because they broke Saudi law on the internet(even though they have never been to Saudi Arabia). US would politely tell them to fuck off. Yet, when US does this to another country,they comply? It's disgusting.

Re: Megaupload programmer goes to prison for one year

#12

Post by Cthulhu_ »

jackjeff wrote: post #9

I 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 o…

Selling and using weed is also illegal in the Netherlands, but if someone from the Netherlands does that activity in the US (either by going there or by for example sending it via the mail), that person is still breaking the law in the US. The US and the Netherlands have an extradition policy for those cases.

The other way around though, the US has already indicated that if ever an American citizen (like IDK, Bush or Cheney or whoever) is going to be tried for war crimes in The Hague, they'd send in their military to extract them. WW3 material right there.

As for the copyright laws, it depends. It was never allowed to upload music and the like - i.e. seeding if you talk about torrent clients. IIRC some leaked Megaupload emails / internal communications indicated that some of the staff was uploading material themselves (but I could mis-remember that)

Re: Megaupload programmer goes to prison for one year

#13

Post by Xylakant »

Fuxy wrote: post #8
RickS wrote: post #6

Earlier 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?

>It seems to [...] 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.

Money paid in cash still needs to show up in the books of the company and your tax statement. If it doesn't, you just handed them another opportunity to make you hang - tax fraud is nothing to trifle with.

Re: Megaupload programmer goes to prison for one year

#15

Post by jepper »

jackjeff wrote: post #9

I 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 o…

The United States can request an extradition for crimes committed by an individual(as argued under the US law). However this does not mean that the Netherlands has to comply. If a Dutch person committed a crime in the Netherlands according to the US, but its legal here, he/she will NOT be extradited. The same is true if the punishment is unreasonably severe according to Dutch law (death penalty.). For the latter there is a clause in our Dutch-US extradition agreements however you can still argue against this in court. (trias politica). It also stated in the treaty that the Dutch convicted can serve their jail time in the Netherlands. The punishment is then even converted to Dutch punishment standards.

There have been cases where it was argued that US electronic law (hacking and piracy cases) is not fair to the accused. This however does not always help.

This will however not help if you refuse a hearing on this. The article states: "Nomm agreed to waive his extradition hearing in the Netherlands"

Re: Megaupload programmer goes to prison for one year

#17

Post by omeid2 »

RickS wrote: post #6
KhalPanda wrote: post #2

This 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.

This is the most logical explanation that I know of, also considering what happened to PopcornTime.

Re: Megaupload programmer goes to prison for one year

#18

Post by easytiger »

jackjeff wrote: post #9

I 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 o…

Also imprisoning people who are not a danger to society in any way shape or form is very modern American. And socially destructive.
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