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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

#121

Post by [deleted] »

tomp wrote: post #41
blowski wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could argue (though don't really agree) that Andrus Nomm was a threat in the same way as Bernie Madoff. Neither was running around shooting people or starting fires. The same could be said for elderly war criminals. There are situations in which it is right to send people to prison without them posing an active and dangerous threat. Whether this in one of those situations is more arguable.

It would be really hard to argue that. Bernie Madoff was more like someone who robs banks, or e.g. ATMs (i.e. no danger to human lives, but money stolen). Megaupload didn't steal anyone's money, and while people did get content without paying for it, it's not very clear that they would pay for it if it wasn't available for free. One undermined the public's confidence in the strength, fairness and security of financia…

[deleted]

Re: Megaupload programmer goes to prison for one year

#124

Post by Retric »

restalis wrote: post #90
stef25 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what lawyers are for, I hope he had a good one.

Actually, the fairness of the trial should be a given, and the lawyers should be merely additional parties whose role is to assist the defendant's handicap of lacking the needed professional law knowledge. Lawyers are not something that one must employ in a dog fight against abusive prosecutors.

In the US Prosecutors are given impunity to do just about anything to get a conviction. The only recourse for a defendant is to get their conviction overturned but that does not give them the years of their life back while waiting for an appeal.

As to fairness it’s considered completely reasonable for an innocent person who is a possible flight risk to spend a year in jail awaiting trial.

Re: Megaupload programmer goes to prison for one year

#125

Post by hellbanner »

tinco wrote: post #57
simon_vetter wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. I'm having a hard time to understand why he waived that hearing. Pleading guilty (basically renouncing to a fair trial to determine if he's guilty or not) is something he could have done in the Netherlands as well. Arguably, copyright laws in the Netherlands (and in the EU as a whole) are fairer to the defendant than their US counterparts.

He would not be allowed to plead guilty in The Netherlands, as The Netherlands is not charging him. The extradition hearing is about whether he will be extradited after being sentenced. So it would go like this: US says you are guilty, 25 years in jail for computer hacking and mass copyright infringement. US sends warrant for your extradition to The Netherlands. The Netherlands arrests you but allows you to go to exp…

No, why wouldn't they at least give it a shot? Is there collusion between NL hearing courts & US prosecution?

Re: Megaupload programmer goes to prison for one year

#126

Post by hellbanner »

chii wrote: post #35
easytiger wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

i wonder if the war on drugs is really orchestrated (either with intention, or manipulated by vested individuals) to make drugs more scarce, and more difficult to obtain, to justify their high price. By making it highly illegal, trafficking drugs has never been more profitable (for the drub lords - not for the peddlers nor the mules obviously). You hardly see the real boss go to prison...

Have you followed what's going on with the Mexican border? I wonder how so many pounds of cocaine & marijuana makes its way through the border every year..

If the USG is sending guns to the gangs in Mexico to aid in their survival, why not help them profit by letting their merchandise into the USA?

Then it gives the USG a reason to wage a "war on drugs" and harden the military-industrial complex industry to fight ever growing "threats" of criminal power "at our borders".

Re: Megaupload programmer goes to prison for one year

#127

Post by hellbanner »

geon wrote: post #76
gambiting wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I wish more countries had the balls to tell the US to fuck off. I wish MY country did; then we wouldn't have had the Pirate Bay Gate, where Swedish constitution was stepped all over.

the US spends the most resources on military every year.

"I wish my neighbors would tell the bully to fuck off when he demands their lunch money"

Here's what happens to countries who tell the USA to fuck off (spoilers: they get economically and militarily invaded):

http://www.amazon.com/Game-As-Old-Empire-Corruption/dp/15767... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_Economic_Hit...

Re: Megaupload programmer goes to prison for one year

#128

Post by hellbanner »

BlueAndroid wrote: post #23
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…

I work in Law Enforcement, so feel to disregard my opinion as biased , however, 75% of my work relates to child exploitation material, and an enormous amount of child abuse material disappeared from easy access when mega-upload went down. I used to find computers with lists and lists of megaupload urls. When that method died out a little beacon of happy shone for me. Now I understand that free movies trumps removing…

I wish LE spent more resources on hunting the producers of child abuse material, instead of just attacking those who hosts. It seems like you play whack-a-mole and cite a victory because "megaupload went down" but guess what, the uploaders are still at large.

This is not a victory!

Re: Megaupload programmer goes to prison for one year

#129

Post by hellbanner »

BlueAndroid wrote: post #95
fnordfnordfnord wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your gross simplification of the issue to "free movies vs raping children" is a straw-man. That kind of patronizing condescension may work on morons, but there are those who have given careful consideration to the issue and decided that despite the negative aspects of free speech and the rule of law, that free speech is in fact more important than catching file-sharers of any kind, and that your ends-justifies-the-me…

The depressing reality is that I'm confronting the reality of the hands on abuse on a day to day basis. That's my world. If your's doesn't have that, lucky you. I don't feel good about it in the slightest. But thanks for letting me vent that :) I'm not sure why free speech IS file sharing in your argument. Maybe freedom of intellectual property? You're also making assumptions about the law I operate under. I'm not in…

Maybe if the USA hunted child-abusers like they hunt "terrorists" then the abuse material would stop being produced.

Re: Megaupload programmer goes to prison for one year

#130

Post by rjaco31 »

ekimekim wrote: post #43
chii wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's like arresting the knife maker for a crime committed by a murderer.

Only somewhat. I don't agree with the sentence here, but a full analogy would be a knife-maker who made a custom knife to order for a person who they knew intended to market it as a murder weapon.

US are selling a shitload of automatic weapons and nobody bats an eye about it..
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