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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

#41

Post by tomp »

blowski wrote: post #27
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 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 financial institutions, the other made some rich people not any richer.

Re: Megaupload programmer goes to prison for one year

#42

Post by ReadThePost »

Fuxy wrote: post #7

There'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.

A programmer's going to jail because, as the original posting says: "Nomm also admitted that he personally downloaded copyright-infringing files from the Mega websites."

So, if you're employer is providing some sort of illegal service, you probably shouldn't use it yourself either unless you're OK with going to jail for it.

Re: Megaupload programmer goes to prison for one year

#43

Post by ekimekim »

chii wrote: post #37
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'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.

Re: Megaupload programmer goes to prison for one year

#44

Post by andrewksl »

blowski wrote: post #27
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 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.

> There are situations in which it is right to send people to prison without them posing an active and dangerous threat

Do these situations exist only when we consider punishment a valid reason for imprisonment? Don't get me wrong; Bernie Madoff being free and enjoying life wouldn't sit right with me, but you have to wonder if locking people away as retribution really benefits tax-paying, law-abiding citizens.

Re: Megaupload programmer goes to prison for one year

#45

Post by ReadThePost »

jcrei wrote: post #25

What if you are a programmer working for any major corporation that happens do be doing some illegal stuff (Banks, Oil, gambling, etc). Should you be afraid to go to jail?

You're probably safe if you don't partake in the illegal activity yourself. From the post: "Nomm also admitted that he personally downloaded copyright-infringing files from the Mega websites."

He got slapped with racketeering charges because they proved that he wasn't just "following orders" from higher-ups but actively assisting/committing criminal activity.

Re: Megaupload programmer goes to prison for one year

#46

Post by simon_vetter »

chii wrote: post #36
jepper wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ther…

why would anyone waive the hearing (presumably, where you would argue that you shouldn't be extradited)?

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.

Re: Megaupload programmer goes to prison for one year

#48

Post by tempodox »

Article quote: In court papers, Nomm agreed that the harm caused to copyright holders by the Mega Conspiracy’s criminal conduct exceeded $400 million.

Poppycock. How is a computer programmer qualified to estimate the pecuniary value of “harm caused” by the shop they're working at? What about the harm caused to Justice by farces and show trials like this?

Re: Megaupload programmer goes to prison for one year

#49

Post by ReadThePost »

contingencies wrote: post #22

By that logic, authors of filesystems, ssh, TCP/IP should go to jail. Quick, let's sue the Oxford dictionary! Military style raid on DARPA for inventing the internet! Oh, wait ... that's the military. Can't we have our cake and eat it too? Talk about political sham oldboy network rent-a-justice. Legal systems need to be decentralized, their interpretation and processes transparent. Perhaps a forward thinking country…

Well, if you invent TCP/IP so that you can then use it to commit illegal activity, then yes, you should expect to have charges levied against you. If you don't, then you're probably fine. From the post: "Nomm also admitted that he personally downloaded copyright-infringing files from the Mega websites."

Not only did he use the service he ran to knowingly pirate things himself, but that also implies that he was aware of content illegally hosted there and did nothing to stop it. Prosecution likely proved beyond a reasonable doubt that he intentionally assisted piracy.

Re: Megaupload programmer goes to prison for one year

#50

Post by fluffheadsr »

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…

Yep, lets arrest everyone.. FOR THE CHILDREN! Everytime a case comes up you law enforcement bring up the same big scarry bad men.. Drugs, Pedophiles, and Terrorists.. GET LOST
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