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From file-sharing to prison: A Megaupload programmer tells his story

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Re: From file-sharing to prison: A Megaupload programmer tells his story

#21

Post by Xylakant »

lisivka wrote: post #8
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #2

It's a little sad specifically his own government didn't provide him much help. Numerous other issues with the US aside, I've always been reasonably confident that if I'm out of the country, the American embassy will help me. And going after the IT staff is pretty awful. Generally speaking, we're just there to make it work. While I make a point to work jobs and clients I think do good work and are moral entities, the…

See case of John Demjanjuk[1] . USA citizen was extradited twice: to Israel and to Germany as "nazi". After his death, FBI confirmed that they know that he is innocent. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Demjanjuk

> After his death, FBI confirmed that they know that he is innocent.

Nitpick: The FBI confirmed that according to their opinion one piece of evidence was a fake.

Re: From file-sharing to prison: A Megaupload programmer tells his story

#22

Post by HemanHeartYou »

grecy wrote: post #10
coldcode wrote: post #9

Clearly our prison system in the US is terrible. Of course most other countries are even worse but you'd think we would be more civilized. It's also embarrassing that the only person they were able to put in jail was a simple programmer.

> Of course most other countries are even worse I've never understood why people say things like this. The USA is supposed to be a developed country, and supposed to be at or near the very best. What do you have to gain by comparing it to undeveloped countries that are clearly not in the same league? For example, you just said: Sure, my pro baseball team finishes bottom of the ladder every year, but it's clearly bett…

You've misinterpreted what he is saying.

He's saying that for a developed country our prison system is bad, but he's also trying not to give the impression that it's worse than other countries, it would be bigoted to do so. This was an attempt at being humble.

Re: From file-sharing to prison: A Megaupload programmer tells his story

#24

Post by jsprogrammer »

lisivka wrote: post #8
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #2

It's a little sad specifically his own government didn't provide him much help. Numerous other issues with the US aside, I've always been reasonably confident that if I'm out of the country, the American embassy will help me. And going after the IT staff is pretty awful. Generally speaking, we're just there to make it work. While I make a point to work jobs and clients I think do good work and are moral entities, the…

See case of John Demjanjuk[1] . USA citizen was extradited twice: to Israel and to Germany as "nazi". After his death, FBI confirmed that they know that he is innocent. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Demjanjuk

The link says he was deported for concealing his involvement with a Nazi death camp on his immigration forms.

Where did the FBI confirm his innocence?

Re: From file-sharing to prison: A Megaupload programmer tells his story

#25

Post by vxNsr »

lisivka wrote: post #8
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #2

It's a little sad specifically his own government didn't provide him much help. Numerous other issues with the US aside, I've always been reasonably confident that if I'm out of the country, the American embassy will help me. And going after the IT staff is pretty awful. Generally speaking, we're just there to make it work. While I make a point to work jobs and clients I think do good work and are moral entities, the…

See case of John Demjanjuk[1] . USA citizen was extradited twice: to Israel and to Germany as "nazi". After his death, FBI confirmed that they know that he is innocent. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Demjanjuk

It's important to note that he died naturally, and that this Wikipedia article assumes he's innocent despite there behind evidence to the contrary.

Re: From file-sharing to prison: A Megaupload programmer tells his story

#26

Post by FilterSweep »

hrbrtglm wrote: post #19

So this guy was jailed because he coded an advertising platform and a video hosting service. I know Mega was on a thin shady line, but what has he done wrong to be jailed in USA ?

The UK has a law called "Joint Criminal Enterprise" which is oft critiqued[0]. In America, this same concept is a de-facto legal and social standard to apply "Guilty by Association" wherever it can.

So, in the USA, it can be (incorrectly) argued - by very, very high powered RIAA legal team - that this was aiding and abetting.[1] It's absolutely wrong, but this is the legal world we live in as developers.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_purpose

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aiding_and_abetting

Re: From file-sharing to prison: A Megaupload programmer tells his story

#27

Post by nulagrithom »

> I had to be made an example of as a warning to all IT people who were intending to work in similar companies.

That's scary. I'm supposed to police my employers actions? To some extent I can understand, but that puts a lot of IT people in awkward positions. Do Dropbox employees need to worry that infringing content is being taken down fast enough, lest the face prosecution?

I didn't follow Megaupload too closely, so I hope I'm blowing this out of proportion...

Re: From file-sharing to prison: A Megaupload programmer tells his story

#28

Post by cm3 »

nulagrithom wrote: post #27

> I had to be made an example of as a warning to all IT people who were intending to work in similar companies. That's scary. I'm supposed to police my employers actions? To some extent I can understand, but that puts a lot of IT people in awkward positions. Do Dropbox employees need to worry that infringing content is being taken down fast enough, lest the face prosecution? I didn't follow Megaupload too closely, so…

> Do Dropbox employees need to worry that infringing content is being taken down fast enough, lest the face prosecution?

Not as long a Dropbox doesn't offend the wrong people.

Re: From file-sharing to prison: A Megaupload programmer tells his story

#30

Post by cm3 »

Some of the coders from Lovoo (dating site/app) may be next. They created fake bots for male customers which the german IT magazine c't reported on last year based on a set of Outlook mailbox dumps they were handed. Now the police raided Lovoo HQ.

https://mopo24.de/nachrichten/razzia-grossaufgebot-polizei-s...

http://www.heise.de/forum/c-t/Kommentare-zu-c-t-Artikeln/Int...

http://onlinedatingsoundbarrier.blogspot.de/2016/06/fraud-wi...

What's the thought process behind documenting the illegal activities in email threads? It makes you wonder if they honestly thought they were just developing test bots for QA purposes.

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