Megaupload Staff Arrested for Copyright Infringement

[dvelez1985]

[citation][nom]Lyrick[/nom]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.[/citation]

Here's the problem with your theory. The internet is not a place... it's not a truck but a series of tubes. Sad thing about that statement about that senator is that he was right but the analogy that he was trying to describe in his favor was wrong. Computers are connected trough series and series of devices. If we want to make something available over the internet we set up services for others to access with a web browser. Most of the content is static but in essence what we serve over the internet is no more different than the knowledge that we share on a day to day basis. The "series of tube" is the media or method of transfer for this information just like the air is for our voice. What congress proposes is that we dictate what content is share or what we say to one another over the web. They want to blacklist the DNS servers or in essence again if they don't like what you are saying because they feel it violates their copy rights they're just going to build a wall around you. The job of the ISP is to provide a service and THAT IS IT. Sure they can create TOS and if need be place restriction on their service if they see fit but who are they to tell others how to handle their service. I hear a lot of people voicing out for the SOPA/PIPA bill and condemning those who pirate. But that is the story that the writers of SOPA/PIPA have you sold on because if you knew it's real intent you'd be up in arms and the bill would not have any power.

By the way I like how you say in the real world if this happened that would happen. Seems you don't know the real world. Pirated content is sold everyday in malls and all over the place. Sorry to burst your ignorant bubble.

 

[blazorthon]

+1 to nottheking's post above me.

 

[sieged]

I cannot believe the crowd that this website draws. If you don't like the laws, then you should put your energy and efforts into changing the laws. If you feel so strongly about the Movie industry then stop watching their movies. It is not your right to watch a movie; merely your desire to watch. The greedy Megaupload staff purposefully broke the law and did so to line their own pockets. and deserve the punishments that will be handed to them.

 

[dvelez1985]

[citation][nom]guardianangel42[/nom]Look, I hate SOPA and PIPA as much as the next guy. I've written (through and advocacy group) all my congressmen about it. I don't like it, I think it is a really, really bad idea.But seriously people, how you could defend Megaupload is beyond me. I haven't been too exposed to their legitimate side of business but my sister has watched a LOT of anime online and the one thing almost every illegal anime hosting site has in common is megavideo. Not only that, but I've seen the videos link to porn sites before playing whatever it is it's supposed to play.Megaupload and Megavideo may not necessarily have cost copyright holders 500 million dollars but they did consistently break the law by hosting and allowing others to distribute illegally obtained content.Of course, from the article it should be obvious that copyright infringement is not the only charge brought against Megaupload/video. Racketeering and money laundering are much, much more serious crimes than copyright infringement and if these charges are true, they deserved to be taken down.It's like many of you conveniently forgot that those other charges existed. Unlike patent trolls the FBI doesn't frivolously charge people with crimes they have no evidence they committed, at least to my knowledge.[/citation]

Most SANE comment I have read yet!

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]sieged[/nom]I cannot believe the crowd that this website draws. If you don't like the laws, then you should put your energy and efforts into changing the laws. If you feel so strongly about the Movie industry then stop watching their movies. It is not your right to watch a movie; merely your desire to watch. The greedy Megaupload staff purposefully broke the law and did so to line their own pockets. and deserve the punishments that will be handed to them.[/citation]

Do you have proof that they broke the law? I doubt it. We just have the government telling us that they may have broken the law and the government just has this wonderful track of not being liars, don't they? Yeah I'm suspicious of anything they claim especially about a group that they seem to be at odds with. It would not be the first abuse of power and unfortunately it won't be the last.

 

[Lyrick]

[citation][nom]blazorthon[/nom]Do you have proof that they broke the law? I doubt it. We just have the government telling us that they may have broken the law and the government just has this wonderful track of not being liars, don't they? Yeah I'm suspicious of anything they claim especially about a group that they seem to be at odds with. It would not be the first abuse of power and unfortunately it won't be the last.[/citation]

Read the indictment specifics are mentioned:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204616504577171180266957116.html

These guys are screwed.

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]Lyrick[/nom]Read the indictment specifics are mentioned:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10 [...] 57116.htmlThese guys are screwed.[/citation]

I just find it hard to believe since Megaupload is constantly removing copyrighted content. My windows 7 disk was damaged last year so I wanted to download another one (using my already paid for key, completely legal) and the first 20 or so I found were already removed. If Megaupload is part of this "mega conspiracy" to steal copyrighted material and distribute it why do they seem to try to remove copyrighted material when it's found? Sure it could just be to make it look like they are not doing what they are accused of but it does raise questions.

I'll finish reading that document after dinner, I'm only in the 2nd page right now.

 

[blazorthon]

http://news.yahoo.com/u-shutters-megaupload-com-hackers-retaliate-011423326.html

This says that the $175 million made by Megaupload was subscription (just to get more storage, faster down/up load speeds, not to get access to anything illegal) fees and advertising, perfectly legal. That money had absolutely nothing to do with illegal content even if someone whom pays a subscription did something illegal.

That money isn't evidence of illegal activity. Maybe Megaupload should have done more to get rid of copyrighted material when it's posted but shutting down a site used legally by many people could do quite a bit of harm that these people really don't seem to care about.

Honestly, if it was reasonably possible to stop piracy completely then don't you think after all this time someone would have found a way, even if they haven't implemented yet?

If anyone thinks it would be easy to implement a system that makes piracy too difficult without infringing on our rights then by all means enlighten me.

 

[__-_-_-__]

megaupload is back 😉 http://109.236.83.6

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]__-_-_-__[/nom]megaupload is back http://109.236.83.6[/citation]

According to Megaupload's lawyer you and anyone else saying anything about Megaupload being back are full of crap. Do you rebuke these claims?

 

[kinggremlin]

[citation][nom]NuclearShadow[/nom]This is bull**** what right do we have to charge and make people get arrest who aren't even in our own nation? Now he's no doubt going to be brought over here and charged. America's laws do not apply to the world. Also shame on New Zealand for showing they care so little about their own citizens.[/citation]

Some of their servers were located in Virgina. Judging by the retardation you displayed in your post, I'm not surprised you don't know that Virgina is located within the US. Do you really think New Zealand would have just handed over these people if the US had no legal jurisdiction over them?

 

[shqtth]

[citation][nom]tidex[/nom]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.[/citation]


I think all people who lost important information on megaupload should sue the government !

 

[austinhoffmann]

That's sad...since it's all BS...SOPA/PIPA were junk + MU arrest was unfair + I don't think swizz he has any legal connections to MU...imo it was all fabbed up to get other celebrity endorsements.

p.s. looks like someone is pissed - FBI vs ANONYMOUS video:
http://www.peeje.com/anonymous-hackers-we-legion-211/

 

[austinhoffmann]

http://www.peeje.com/anonymous-hackers-we-legion-211/

 

[nottheking]

[citation][nom]Lyrick[/nom]Read the indictment specifics are mentioned:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10 [...] 57116.htmlThese guys are screwed.[/citation]
I read it myself before making the rather-lengthy post you (apparently) didn't read. I outlined why the charges, while looking impressive, are flimsy, and essentially trumped-up. The vast majority of the "guilty" rulings the US government boasts about? It's purely because they terrorize the suspect into submitting a guilty plea, regardless of their actual innocence.

[citation][nom]blazorthon[/nom]http://news.yahoo.com/u-shutters-m [...] 23326.htmlThis says that the $175 million made by Megaupload was subscription (just to get more storage, faster down/up load speeds, not to get access to anything illegal) fees and advertising, perfectly legal. That money had absolutely nothing to do with illegal content even if someone whom pays a subscription did something illegal.[/citation]
Exactly; though it wasn't a SCOTUS ruling, it was a US Court of Appeals ruling that stated that hosting illegal content doesn't count as profiting off of it. In that case, (Ellison v. Robertson) the defendant in that case was AOL Time Warner, or specifically the AOL division.

[citation][nom]blazorthon[/nom]That money isn't evidence of illegal activity. Maybe Megaupload should have done more to get rid of copyrighted material[/citation]
Unless there's something that has been well-hidden, perhaps there isn't really anything MU should've done. The DMCA is pretty clear for the most part; to fail to satisfy what's required of them, they'd have had to balked at removing content.

As the Department of Justice has admitted themselves, MegaUpload hasn't exactly been balking; and plenty of ordinary users could tell this for themselves as well: the site is full of dead links due to removed content. The DoJ stated that MU had a habit of quickly removing infringing content quickly after being notified of the infraction. This is how things are supposed to work under the DMCA.

The issue, it appears, is that some were unhappy with how fair the DMCA is in this regard; hence why the push by Hollywood and the RIAA to get SOPA and PIPA passed, and this attack by the FBI, which is essentially a case of pretending SOPA and PIPA are already around in spirit.

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]nottheking[/nom]I read it myself before making the rather-lengthy post you (apparently) didn't read. I outlined why the charges, while looking impressive, are flimsy, and essentially trumped-up. The vast majority of the "guilty" rulings the US government boasts about? It's purely because they terrorize the suspect into submitting a guilty plea, regardless of their actual innocence.Exactly; though it wasn't a SCOTUS ruling, it was a US Court of Appeals ruling that stated that hosting illegal content doesn't count as profiting off of it. In that case, (Ellison v. Robertson) the defendant in that case was AOL Time Warner, or specifically the AOL division.Unless there's something that has been well-hidden, perhaps there isn't really anything MU should've done. The DMCA is pretty clear for the most part; to fail to satisfy what's required of them, they'd have had to balked at removing content.As the Department of Justice has admitted themselves, MegaUpload hasn't exactly been balking; and plenty of ordinary users could tell this for themselves as well: the site is full of dead links due to removed content. The DoJ stated that MU had a habit of quickly removing infringing content quickly after being notified of the infraction. This is how things are supposed to work under the DMCA.The issue, it appears, is that some were unhappy with how fair the DMCA is in this regard; hence why the push by Hollywood and the RIAA to get SOPA and PIPA passed, and this attack by the FBI, which is essentially a case of pretending SOPA and PIPA are already around in spirit.[/citation]

I'm glad to see someone seriously contemplating the sides of this issue. As of right now I'm on Megaupload's side based on what's been said here and the track record of Mega's opponents. Based on what (admittedly little) information we have here do you think Megaupload's staff are guilty of anything relevant to their charges?