Am I the only one who thinks what happened to Megaupload was a good thing?

[Twitchy Racoon]

*Activating Flame shield

For starters I'm not saying that I approve of SOPA or any of that crap, all I'm saying is that I approve of how the government is able to fight piracy without the need of some dumb law like SOPA.

Whenever I mention this I'm answered with a bunch of 'BRING DOWN THE GOVERMENT' Guy Faux jargon so I thought perhaps the intellectual hive mind of the Escapist would perhaps give me they're opinion on the topic.

Plus from what I've read, Megaupload wasn't 'shut down' per se, rather 'put on hold' so the feds could investigate it.

Yes I know that Megaupload wasn't all pirate.

EDIT: Megaupload took up over 4% of all traffic on the entire internet (they even mentioned it in their song) and the amount of unlicensed material they had took away over $500.000.000 from the product's respective owners. I understand how some of you guys say that there are hundreds of other sites that do the same thing, but none are or were as big as Megaupload.

EDIT2: The usa government had every right to extradiat those guys from New Zealand because they are acting upon the Berne Convention http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention_for_the_Protection_of_Literary_and_Artistic_Works , the only problem is that usa joined the convention in the 80s so their usage of it is only starting to be more evident now-a-days.

EDIT3: I heard some rumors of how Megaupload was actually endorsing pirated material in an attempt to increase their advertisement revenues (Gizmodo wrote a bit about it: http://gizmodo.com/5877836/why-did-the-feds-choose-megaupload-and-why-now) and that the feds had been collecting evidence on it all and finally decided to bring them in for trial (not coincidentally after the SOPA protests of course). This could explain their rather LONG possible jail time but honestly someone should put a limit on this regardless of their intentions.

EDIT4: Yes a get it, I'm not 'the only one', I find it ridiculous that I have to actually mention this because so many of are complaining about this. Thank you captain obvious.

 

[Aidinthel]

So let's say there's a bank, with safe deposit boxes. And some people use their safe deposit boxes to store counterfeit goods. Clearly the logical government action is to close the bank and arrest anyone who works there.

 

[Luftwaffles]

I had some ROMs backed up via megaupload......

So.....no, not entirely so.

If this is what your government can do without SOPA/PIPA, i dont want to imagine what it can do when they pass.

 

[Nyaoku]

Taking down megaupload the way they did was wrong.
I don't think that the owners of the site should be held responsible for the content of others who are getting out of this fairly unscathed.
Also, the timing of the take down just after the blackout seems like a straightforward insult to any who supported the anti-SOPA/Protect IP thing reguardless of the intent.
It's giving the appearance of a test to see how much control that they actually have without the bills going through and in the future, may be referenced in the defense of taking down future sites ... que the debate. I'm going to bed.

 

[Kolby Jack]

So let's say there's a bank, with safe deposit boxes. And some people use their safe deposit boxes to store counterfeit goods. Clearly the logical government action is to close the bank and arrest anyone who works there.

It is when the bank owners know exactly what it in those boxes. Don't even try to say they didn't know.

Let's say there's a drug dealer who is using a bookstore as a front to sell his product. You don't know who the dealer is and can't bring him in, but the product is still getting on the streets. Clearly the logical course of action is to shut down the bookstore to stop the flow and arrest the store owner who knew exactly what was going on. Send a message, stop the goods, force the dealer to move somewhere else where maybe he'll be more exposed or make a mistake.

 

[Aidinthel]

It is when the bank owners know exactly what it in those boxes. Don't even try to say they didn't know.

Right. Megaupload totally monitored every one of god-knows how many files on its site for copyrighted material. And of course they never cooperated at all when others reported illegal materials to them.

People providing a service shouldn't be (and, I'm pretty sure actually aren't under DMCA) liable for the actions of those who abuse it.

 

[Twitchy Racoon]

Taking down megaupload the way they did was wrong.
I don't think that the owners of the site should be held responsible for the content of others who are getting out of this fairly unscathed.
Also, the timing of the take down just after the blackout seems like a straightforward insult to any who supported the anti-SOPA/Protect IP thing reguardless of the intent.
It's giving the appearance of a test to see how much control that they actually have without the bills going through and in the future, may be referenced in the defense of taking down future sites ... que the debate. I'm going to bed.

In this case the owners were more than aware of the illicit actions that occurred on their website and did an insufficient effort to stop them. On sites like youtube most unlicensed material is removed immediately, of course you can find an entire movie with little difficulty but the majority is always removed.

 

[Kolby Jack]

It is when the bank owners know exactly what it in those boxes. Don't even try to say they didn't know.

Right. Megaupload totally monitored every one of god-knows how many files on its site for copyrighted material. And of course they never cooperated at all when others reported illegal materials to them.

People providing a service shouldn't be (and, I'm pretty sure actually aren't under DMCA) liable for the actions of those who abuse it.

When they were reported? Of course they'd cooperate and put on the ol' "Whaaaaat?! On my website?!" face and get rid of it. But that's ALL they did. As long as a stink wasn't being raised on a particular video, they didn't give two shits about copyright.

In a perfect world, you are right, they shouldn't have been prosecuted for this. But this is not a perfect world, my friend; better to dam the river than attempt to dry the lake.

 

[Matty]

What I don't like is the fact there are millions of other websites doing the same exact thing. If you're going to arrest those guys that work for mega-upload then you have to go ahead and arrest the other 10,000 sites doing the same exact thing. And thats pretty much every uploading website.

 

[Matty]

Another thing that really sucks about uploading sites. Is that the users are usually the ones who upload the files to the websites. Staff cant upload millions of files that quickly. I think that the Gov used megaupload to make an example out of them. Letting the other 100,000 sites know that hey..... we're looking at you. We got our eyes on you! But I really disagree with arresting the graphic designer for 20+ years. I say the graphic designer gets 5 years at the most. But 20 years is just wrong for the sites graphic designer.

 

[GoAwayVifs]

But I really disagree with arresting the graphic designer for 20+ years. I say the graphic designer gets 5 years at the most. But 20 years is just wrong for the sites graphic designer.

I believe they are pushing for 55 years for all of them including the graphic designer which is just fucking insane. You could get less time for killing man. That is exactly how fucked up copyright law is. That you can push for a 55 year sentence for this and not be laughed out of court.

Also don't double post.

 

[Phlakes]

Every file sharing site has been used for piracy by someone. They're used as a tool, they're not the problem themselves. The pirates should be punished, not the site.

 

[The Pinray]

Wow, I'm surprised no overly-literal genius took the "am I the only one" bait. This gives me hope.

Anyways, I wouldn't say it's a good thing. Piracy needs to be stopped, but not by taking down the entire damn site.

 

[NiPah]

*Activating Flame shield

For starters I'm not saying that I approve of SOPA or any of that crap, all I'm saying is that I approve of how the government is able to fight piracy without the need of some dumb law like SOPA.

Whenever I mention this I'm answered with a bunch of 'BRING DOWN THE GOVERMENT' Guy Faux jargon so I thought perhaps the intellectual hive mind of the Escapist would perhaps give me they're opinion on the topic.

Plus from what I've read, Megaupload wasn't 'shut down' per se, rather 'put on hold' so the feds could investigate it.

Yes I know that Megaupload wasn't all pirate.

It always seems like people say "from what I've read" or "In this case the owners were more than aware of the illicit actions that occurred on their website and did an insufficient effort to stop them" without actually following up on explaining what they mean. What I do know is that the American government has crushed any chances that large cloud servers for companies like megaupload will ever be built here, losing a huge source of IT jobs and making it slower for us to use sites like megaupload since they will be hosted in free countries like Canada.

Oh well I hope this case blows up in the face of the government and makes it harder for them to fund and bring about large scale operations such as this.

 

[keideki]

As a person who used Megaupload to distribute his own files in a legit way, it makes me mad. What happens to my membership now? I know it was used for pirating... but so is every file sharing site and protocol on the internet. Heck, you can watch pirated stuff on YOUTUBE.

 

[girzwald]

It is when the bank owners know exactly what it in those boxes. Don't even try to say they didn't know.

Right. Megaupload totally monitored every one of god-knows how many files on its site for copyrighted material. And of course they never cooperated at all when others reported illegal materials to them.

People providing a service shouldn't be (and, I'm pretty sure actually aren't under DMCA) liable for the actions of those who abuse it.

When they were reported? Of course they'd cooperate and put on the ol' "Whaaaaat?! On my website?!" face and get rid of it. But that's ALL they did. As long as a stink wasn't being raised on a particular video, they didn't give two shits about copyright.

In a perfect world, you are right, they shouldn't have been prosecuted for this. But this is not a perfect world, my friend; better to dam the river than attempt to dry the lake.

What are they supposed to do, be outraged? Go on a crusade and check and purge every single file on their site to show that they are doing more than just co-operating? They are under no obligation to do anything more than co-operate. They aren't required to care. They have too many files to care.

 

[Rheinmetall]

Are you the only one who thinks that? I can't know that. Statistically, there must be others too.

 

[tthor]

I think it was a good thing, pretty much the only thing anyone (including myself) ever used megavideo/megaupload for was pirating stuff.


Tho the against crowd does have a point, because with this idea, how could a internet file sharing system ever truly work, when it would generally instinctively be used by users for pirated content to a large extent. How do you regulate that, while still allowing filesharing?

 

[Vitagen]

Every file sharing site has been used for piracy by someone. They're used as a tool, they're not the problem themselves. The pirates should be punished, not the site.

This. This in so many ways. Do governments destroy all known plastic bags when they discover a shipment of coke? No, they shut down the operation and punish the dealers, not the plastic bag manufacturers.

 

[major_chaos]

Taking down megaupload the way they did was wrong.
I don't think that the owners of the site should be held responsible for the content of others who are getting out of this fairly unscathed.
Also, the timing of the take down just after the blackout seems like a straightforward insult to any who supported the anti-SOPA/Protect IP thing reguardless of the intent.
It's giving the appearance of a test to see how much control that they actually have without the bills going through and in the future, may be referenced in the defense of taking down future sites ... que the debate. I'm going to bed.

In this case the owners were more than aware of the illicit actions that occurred on their website and did an insufficient effort to stop them. On sites like youtube most unlicensed material is removed immediately, of course you can find an entire movie with little difficulty but the majority is always removed.

Interesting that you mention Youtube as a favorable example of managing infringement because I would say in their bending over backwards to rid the site of anything that might get them in trouble is both damaging to the site and a prefect example of why corporations should not be given the power to lash out whenever they want just because of the copyright infringement bogyman,just as one example out of many, I love the Gmod idiot box it is hilarious and you should go watch it but there is one episode you can't watch because it was removed for Copyright violations despite the fact that it most likely didn't not contain more than 30 seconds of any one work, as another example I frequently see anime favorite scene, opening theme, ect. get taken down for the same reason despite the fact that they could not possibly have represented any thereat to the sales of the show, so I would say not displaying youtube levels of paranoia is not proof that the owners of Megaupload were in some way intentionally encouraging piracy.