Megaupload Staff Arrested for Copyright Infringement

[southernshark]

[citation][nom]juanoxx[/nom]hollywood needs more ideas, they need to play in a more intelligent way...sending cops to do his fights is just a way to probe his lack of innovation, play smart, do the same as megaupload but 100 times better and 100 times cheaper... most of us will prefer to see a blueray quality video than stupid sd res...play smart...play fair, but dont send the dogs to do your job.[/citation]

No kidding. The worst part about Hollywood is their own stupidity. They create these licensing agreements country by country, instead of just selling things world wide. So if you live in a 3d world country you often have no choice but to download the media illegally (which is what MegaUpload was doing for a fee). If Hollywood just put things for sale online and offered it to the entire planet at once then there would be a lot less piracy. But when media is not available to 85 percent of the worlds population, just because some lawyer wants a special contract/ fee, then you can bet that there will always be piracy.

 

[synphul1]

if it were entirely true that they were doing so intentionally, then why is it so many file links to megaupload were broken? a message stating *this file is in violation of copyright and is no longer available* - is that how they intentionally provide people with pirated content? not saying megaupload was perfect, but i think the fbi has heavily tampered with the facts just like big brother is notorious for. more lies than truth so they can do what they want. they still won't come clean with the u.s. citizens over what happened during the world trade center incident, you really think they're being honest about this? lmao, think again. and i don't like the abusive morons at riaa or mpaa either - but for them to do their little victory dance is amusing. taking down megaupload 'crippled' file sharing i suppose just like they 'crippled' limewire? epic fail.

 

[synphul1]

if it were entirely true that they were doing so intentionally, then why is it so many file links to megaupload were broken? a message stating *this file is in violation of copyright and is no longer available* - is that how they intentionally provide people with pirated content? not saying megaupload was perfect, but i think the fbi has heavily tampered with the facts just like big brother is notorious for. more lies than truth so they can do what they want. they still won't come clean with the u.s. citizens over what happened during the world trade center incident, you really think they're being honest about this? lmao, think again. and i don't like the abusive morons at riaa or mpaa either - but for them to do their little victory dance is amusing. taking down megaupload 'crippled' file sharing i suppose just like they 'crippled' limewire? epic fail.

 

[anonymous32111]

I think i just found out what I want to do for a living.. Mega Conspiracize! No seriously, this just makes me want to start an 'Ultra Upload' clone hosted somewhere far far away.

 

[Lyrick]

Good for the US, finally protecting the interest, jobs and well being of Content Creators and Owners. The owners of these sites know pirated material is being distributed through their site and they chose to only be reactionary. The virtual space has been lacking in many aspects when it come to policing and has given an outlet to those that want to abuse the freedom for their own capital gains.

In the physical world if we were to knowingly operate any establishment that dealt in illegal, counterfeit, pirated, or stolen goods and we chose to only be reactionary after the police or owners of products we were offending busted us, it would be way to late for a slap on the wrist.

 

[nhat11]

[citation][nom]fyasko[/nom]so the FBI is hollywood's goon squad now. why doesn't hollywood embrace the internet instead of fight it? soon media companies will go the way of record companies.[/citation]

Problem is the megaload company are making money off OTHER people's work.

 

[datawrecker]

All of those tax dollars wasted to shutdown a website. You want to know how ineffective these methods are.... less then 24 hours later. MegaUpload still lives on.

http/109.236.83.66/

 

[anonymous32111]

[citation][nom]datawrecker[/nom]All of those tax dollars wasted to shutdown a website. You want to know how ineffective these methods are.... less then 24 hours later. MegaUpload still lives on. http/109.236.83.66/[/citation]

Careful, probably a scam-imitation site, people have been posting these all over chat boards since yesterday.. DoJ in disguise lol

 

[nottheking]

[citation][nom]southernshark[/nom]Well if you were familiar with Federal Criminal Court at all, and it sounds like you aren't (let's focus on the word CRIMINAL as opposed to CIVIL), you would know that very very few people survive a Federal Indictment in tact. The conviction rate in Federal Court is about 99 percent. The system is NOT designed to set people free. It is designed to convict people for the government.Can they roll the dice and risk it? Sure. Are they going to be convicted? There is about a 99 percent chance that the answer to that is yes.The best thing they can do is to try and cut a deal at this point. If they don't then they are going to go to prison.[/citation]
Actually, I'm more familiar with criminal court than you, it would appear. For one, copyright violation isn't a criminal offense, it's a civil one: one cannot be tried in criminal court for it.

Also, the conviction rate for indictments may be 99%, but that's more or less entirely because 95% of those are guilty pleas. These guilty pleas often come precisely BECAUSE of the sort of attitude you give there. The actual conviction rate for trials is closer to the 80-90%; mostly it's high because federal authorities (chiefly the F.B.I, but also the DEA, ATF, and other agencies) are extremely cautious and careful, and err on the side of caution: an indictment isn't made until they're very sure they have a slam-dunk load of evidence. Lastly, this figure does not include all the times that charges were DROPPED; in other words, the conviction rate of 99% is an artificially inflated number designed to make the Justice Department look good.

This is one of the cases where they don't. As I mentioned, the criminal charges hinge entirely upon the civil charge. And there's ample amounts of law governing the questions involved. As for another tidbit of criminal law, one can't simply indict and attempt to convict a suspect simply because the prosecution said so. Criminal law and penal code are required to strictly define what constitutes what crime.

In this case, again, it helps to understand the law: the RICO act of 1970, which is the American anti-racketeering law, makes racketeering a sort of "rider" crime; there must be an actual criminal act first before it can be elevated to "racketeering." (since a racket is simply the same illegal activity done over a period of time) So, again, the racketeering charge relies on a conviction for money laundering.

As for money laundering... THAT is well-defined, by the MLCA of 1986. However, again, it has multiple requirements that must be satisfied. In other words, it's things that the prosecution will have to prove:

- First, they must show that the money they received was obtained from an illegal activity. This will likely be the only thing that will be easy for them; it's pretty easy to find this if you dig enough. This would most likely drug money is my bet; note that as it appears, larceny is actually not included in the valid list of crimes in the MLCA; and neither is copyright infringement. (which is a civil infraction anyway)
- Secondly, they must show that the suspects were both aware of the crimes, and aware that they were receiving money from those crimes. This would be rather hard, as this would DRASTICALLY cut down on all the transactions involved: as I recall, MegaUpload's subscriptions were paid mostly by credit card. While this makes such transactions easy to track, (and also potentially ideal for a BUYER trying to launder money) it actually makes it much murkier for a business to be aware of the source of the money. Again, the MLCA does not criminalize unwittingly being party to a money-laundering scheme; otherwise the CEOs of banks and credit card companies would have a remarkable attrition rate.
- They must show that the transactions they engaged in was done for the purpose of hiding its source, or evading reporting requirements, and furthermore, that the suspect was aware of this. This is an essentially impossible task for this case: Megaupload's revenue comes from subscriptions, which are (comparatively) tiny in terms of cost, and there is little reason for anyone to believe that someone is actually buying subscriptions to launder money? Yes, Megaupload's founders are likely aware that, for instance, a lot of their content hosted is pirated, but that's actually not covered in MLCA.
- Lastly, they must show that the suspect knew the transactions were designed to either promote the continuation of the illegal enterprise that produced the money, OR for the purpose of IRS tax evasion. This is where we go from "essentially impossible" to "downright ludicrous." MU isn't even based in the United States, so that throws tax evasion out the window. Similarly, there's no CRIMINAL activity that could be promoted here: I wasn't aware of Megaupload allowing any awkward refund scheme that could be used to quietly get your money back, nor could the services obtained be traded to obtain cash or other services: Megaupload subscriptions aren't as much a tradable commodity like, say, World of Warcraft cards.

All told, I assign a literal 100% chance that this will be an "all criminal charges dropped" case; again, that "99% conviction rate" you mention doesn't include this: all a very clever shuffling of numbers to hide the truth done by the feds. (coincidentally, not unlike actual money laundering)

Trust me, I don't despise the federal government or harbor any conspiracy theories. I just hate it when serious federal law is used for what is in reality a publicity stunt, furthermore one intended to SCARE people. There's a word for serious, dangerous acts designed to scare people (and governments) to act in a desired way: terrorism.

 

[tidex]

I don't believe kim is completely innocent but you can't just chop the site like that.
It was one of the largest sites on the internet, not all of those downloads were illegal content.
Many sites who relied on megaupload for their excellent free service are now screwed, thousands of files are now lost forever. So not only have they killed one of the largest sites on the net, other websites that used their service to deliver legitimate files will now die as well. This is an inexcusable abuse of power. The man wasn't even in the United States for f**ks sake and the site did take down illegal content when requested.

 

[Lyrick]

This site also knowing hosts Child pornography as in it has the necessary detection software so they can identify it, but only again they only remove the content upon request.

 

[Guest]

At least this proves that SOPA/PIPA aren't needed, and would merely be redundant to existing laws that facilitate this kind of take-down.

 

[LORD_ORION]

It's hard to see through the BS of the prosecutors.

Did Mega Upload getting caught running a bootlegging service? Did they personally use content to create pirated copies on a mass scale and resell them?

Or is this "Fast reproduction and distribution service" just normal revenue generated by people who were misusing the site, and this are trumped up delusion of prosecutors hoping to get a good paying job in the private sector.

 

[anonymous32111]

[citation][nom]nottheking[/nom]I just hate it when serious federal law is used for what is in reality a publicity stunt, furthermore one intended to SCARE people. There's a word for serious, dangerous acts designed to scare people (and governments) to act in a desired way: terrorism.[/citation]

Very well said! A+

 

[michalmierzwa]

Big Brother is Watching , Matrix anyone?

 

[theFatHobbit]

anyone reckon that this all started because someone at the doj didn't want to wait 50 minutes to see the last 10 minutes of what they were watching.

 

[dvelez1985]

The FBI is not "Hollywood's goons". If you think that you're just as clueless as those passing the bill in congress. Megauploads is an internet organized crime. They have been tried countless times in other countries for more than the site itself. They have been tried for hacking into banks and steeling money. They have had to legally change their names several times to escape the law. They were caught hiding in other countries. These guys are the equivalent to mafias on the internet. So the FBI or who ever arrested them were right in arresting them and I hate to say it but they were right in bringing their site down. In reality it is because of site like them that this bill even has power in congress. But do not for once think that these bill and it's existence in congress was the reason the site was brought down and the owner was arrested. These guy dug their own grave long before SOPA/PIPA.

On another note those who are supporting SOPA/PIPA and saying that it will NOT infringe on your rights let me ask you this. Have you even read the damn bill? There is a lot of legal jargon and no technical terminology to define the intent of the bill. Because of that alone the bill if passed into law will be seriously abused by organization to benefit their cause which is not to stop piracy but to stop any threats to their organization and justify it as infringement. So YES it will infringe on your rights and freedom of speech. For example Wikipedia has a huge target on it's head and the media industry will dictate what is put on there and if it is not removed properly they will sue them and have them blacklisted. Then they will take that information and that system and patent it in their own form and create an account system where you would have to purchase just to even see the information that they publish. Now yes this is a far reach and more of a hypothetical situation but if the media wanted to they could do that under SOPA/PIPA. I strongly believe that's what they will do too. So NO this will not stop piracy this will just force them underground and this will strengthen an already strong media empire and squash any chance of competition. This is an internet monopoly.

 

[Guest]

So did Megaupload place pirated content on their own website, or did they merely fail to monitor, research and investigate EVERY SINGLE FREAKING file that was ever uploaded on their server?


Of course, they are also liable for decrypting everything that was placed on their website in an encrypted state... While we're at it, let's just bust Google for showing search results of Megaupload for search queries asking for pirated files.... Clearly, Megaupload was using Google as a willing proxy...

 

[Guest]

[citation][nom]rottingsheep[/nom]these companies should move their offices to sweden?http/www.tomsguide.com/us/Sweden [...] 13756.html[/citation]

All of these "sites" need to hit up wiki and think about relocating.

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[fracture]

Megaupload was getting too big, with that Megaupload song and all. Had to take them down. And talk about Conspiracy Theorists. Government is the biggest Conspiracy Theorist, actually arresting based on their conspiracy. Why can't we do the same to the Government.