41–50 of 84 posts
And then, when things do work out, these 'entrepreneurs' are the ones who boast about how they overcame adversity in the face of impossible odds.
Now I understand why Donald Trump is so popular in the US. People just lost all faith in the system; so they might as well get some entertainment out of it.
> 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…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Eichmanns
Not that I disagree with what Megaupload was, but "they paid me to help, and I didn't ask any questions" is about the worst excuse in the world.
edit: to be super-clear, if you're participating in Megaupload, you're participating in Megaupload. It isn't just the CEO who is taking a stand against copyright (or for private communication, or whatever), you are too. Also, you should be prepared that people generally aren't sympathetic to moral stances that are personally lucrative, especially at the expense of others. This is because people lie for money.
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.
Why do you think that?
So basically employers/entrepreneurs get all the rewards if their companies succeed but if they fail, it's the employees who take the fall. And then, when things do work out, these 'entrepreneurs' are the ones who boast about how they overcame adversity in the face of impossible odds. Now I understand why Donald Trump is so popular in the US. People just lost all faith in the system; so they might as well get some en…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Just following orders" is a bad defense when you have the option to just refuse and find another job. The terrible part is that Kim Dotcom has been able to avoid jail for the same crime this guy committed just because he has the money to fight.
...except when those orders are to build something innocuous. If someone told me to build some filesharing software and give it to them, making me responsible for the content is absurd. Its basically the legal equivalent of holding Dropbox developers responsible for piracy. The only difference is Megaupload was public and blatant enough in English-speaking media (of which the programmer was not a native speaker) for…
> I also had to sign my name to all of the evidence that had already been collected—for example, to the fact that Megaupload ignored complaints from time to time and did not remove illegal content fast enough. If anyone had any doubts about a file, Kim always calmed them down and said there was nothing to worry about.
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://…
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
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Throughout three decades of US hearings, an extradition, a death sentence followed by acquittal in Israel, a deportation and now a trial in Munich, the arguments have relied heavily on the photo ID from an SS training camp that indicates Demjanjuk was sent to Sobibor.
Claims that the card and other evidence against Demjanjuk are Soviet forgeries have repeatedly been made by Demjanjuk's defense attorneys. However, the FBI report provides the first known confirmation that American investigators had similar doubts.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.