[UPDATE] Feds Take Down Megaupload

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Tay051173096

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Jun 10, 2011
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Awexsome said:
Haha! Yes! Finally some god damn consequences against those who actually deserve it in this whole piracy thing. Stop going after freaking google and youtube and go after sites like this!
Your joking right? If they can set precedent laws with this youtube could well be next with all the anime and music content on there...
 

Andaxay

Thinking with Portals
Jun 4, 2008
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Awexsome said:
Andaxay said:
ZeZZZZevy said:
What I don't think is posted here but is really ridiculous is that if found guilty, these people will be facing a 55 year sentence.

That's right. 55 YEARS
So someone who commits murder and ends another LIFE can pay a lot less of a price than this? Awesome. The world has officially gone snooker loopy.

Part of me thinks this shutdown is a response to the SOPA and PIPA protests yesterday. A way of saying "well, we can and will do it, regardless."
Lies. Whether to put us on the criminal's side or not... probably.

The max they can get is 20.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/justice-fbi-crack-megaupload/story?id=15396526#.TxidwPnNlGU
Ahaa, well that's... less harsh, still silly when more serious crimes sometimes carry softer punishments. I feel for 'em, I strongly doubt they set out to create something purely for benefiting from breaching copyrights, especially when so many users used the site for legitimate reasons. It begins.
 

Awexsome

Were it so easy
Mar 25, 2009
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Tay051173096 said:
Awexsome said:
Haha! Yes! Finally some god damn consequences against those who actually deserve it in this whole piracy thing. Stop going after freaking google and youtube and go after sites like this!
Your joking right? If they can set precedent laws with this youtube could well be next with all the anime and music content on there...
No slippery slope bullshit that was actually a threat with SOPA. This is a single takedown of a single site giving blatant disregard for piracy laws and, with this new revelation, was actually encouraging it and giving out benefits to their users for doing it.

There is a distinct difference between MegaUpload's objective and Youtube's. Youtube actually gives a fuck about enforcing piracy laws. Megaupload encouraged breaking it.
 

Awexsome

Were it so easy
Mar 25, 2009
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Soviet Heavy said:
How long before the angry Hitler Meme gets updated for this incident?
Anon went right into tantrum DDoS mode already so I wouldn't be surprised if it was within the hour.
 

Tay051173096

New member
Jun 10, 2011
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Awexsome said:
Tay051173096 said:
Awexsome said:
Haha! Yes! Finally some god damn consequences against those who actually deserve it in this whole piracy thing. Stop going after freaking google and youtube and go after sites like this!
Your joking right? If they can set precedent laws with this youtube could well be next with all the anime and music content on there...
No slippery slope bullshit that was actually a threat with SOPA. This is a single takedown of a single site giving blatant disregard for piracy laws and, with this new revelation, was actually encouraging it and giving out benefits to their users for doing it.

There is a distinct difference between MegaUpload's objective and Youtube's. Youtube actually gives a fuck about enforcing piracy laws. Megaupload encouraged breaking it.
My main concern is that the Fed can't see the difference and this IS the thin end of the wedge.

Whose next? The share sites? The torrent sites?
 

Awexsome

Were it so easy
Mar 25, 2009
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Tay051173096 said:
Awexsome said:
Tay051173096 said:
Awexsome said:
Haha! Yes! Finally some god damn consequences against those who actually deserve it in this whole piracy thing. Stop going after freaking google and youtube and go after sites like this!
Your joking right? If they can set precedent laws with this youtube could well be next with all the anime and music content on there...
No slippery slope bullshit that was actually a threat with SOPA. This is a single takedown of a single site giving blatant disregard for piracy laws and, with this new revelation, was actually encouraging it and giving out benefits to their users for doing it.

There is a distinct difference between MegaUpload's objective and Youtube's. Youtube actually gives a fuck about enforcing piracy laws. Megaupload encouraged breaking it.
My main concern is that the Fed can't see the difference and this IS the thin end of the wedge.

Whose next? The share sites? The torrent sites?
Well look at the internet reaction to SOPA when they can't see the difference. Can't just give up being afraid that they might have a bad idea. We can tell them when an idea is bad and it turned out pretty well.
 

Baresark

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Dec 19, 2010
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This is going to be a long and drawn out court thing. People seem to think this is 1.) the end of the situation and 2.) this means that the site and it's owners are guilty of illegal things. This is not over by a long shot. I love how single minded people can be. It's ok for the authorities to affect the life of millions of honest people as long as they catch a couple of pirates along the way. This kindergarten politics shit has to stop.

Awexsome said:
Because they received direct monetary compensation from it.

Seriously, that's like Bond villain levels. Megaupload host all of those illegal pirate copies of music that hurt the music industry and the person who runs it is... from the music industry?! I don't doubt those laundring and conspiracy charges at all. After the music industry, the one the CEO is from, is harmed from the pirating practices he'd have the last laugh getting all the profits from the illegal trade.

The seven suspects have been charged with participating in a racketeering conspiracy, conspiring to commit copyright infringement, conspiring to commit money laundering and two substantive counts of criminal copyright infringement. source: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/justice-fbi-crack-megaupload/story?id=15396526#.TxidwPnNlGU

Makes a lot of sense to promote the very thing you're the CEO of.
This is not a logical line of thinking. They rent server space to individuals, some of which are no doubt guilty of piracy. This misses the point of anti-piracy legislation altogether. The point is to catch pirates. Not shut down honest businesses who are are enabling file sharing of non copyrighted material the vast majority of the time. Nor is it the companies responsibility or within the companies right to just sift through the data that customers pay them to store.

I have never seen an ad for Megaupload that told me I can store copyrighted material there, or any such ad saying it's a safe haven for pirates. They have not proven at all that the owners and employees of the company are guilty of anything. I get tired of seeing apologists for the broken system attack anything and everything because they cannot catch pirates. I have as much problem with piracy as the next guy, but I'm simply unwilling to watch innocent people get affected by another prolonged "war on...." type conflict. This does nothing to help us common internet use people, it won't end piracy or even affect piracy. But I can see it already, plenty of companies that do similar things will start moving their server space overseas for safety, another fantastic move that will only serve to further hurt the already super protracted American economy. But, at least they'll have shut down a handful of pirates for a week. Totally worth the tradeoff.
 

Dogstile

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Jan 17, 2009
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Irridium said:
kajinking said:
After yesterday I get the feeling this is going to get messy real fast. You have to consider just how much stuff on there WASN'T illegal and they just locked it all down in the blink of an eye. Plenty of people are not going to be happy with this.
Yep. To get at some suspected pirates, they shut down an entire site that's chock full of people using it for perfectly legal means.

Fucking unreal.

And I'm willing to be a good chunk of people downloading those suspected copyright infringing material were doing so because it wasn't available in their region. Quite a bit of people use Megavideo to watch TV shows/movies that aren't available in their country.
Not just that, didn't megaupload have a "pro" account feature that you pay money get? (correct me if i'm mistaken).

Now they've taken away a service, without warning that people have been paying to use legally for years. And they're charging everyone except the American so far.
 

Sylveria

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Nov 15, 2009
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Awexsome said:
Haha! Yes! Finally some god damn consequences against those who actually deserve it in this whole piracy thing. Stop going after freaking google and youtube and go after sites like this!
And for all the people using Megaupload/megavideo/etc for perfectly legal reasons? This could happen to any hosting site, and probably will.
 

Awexsome

Were it so easy
Mar 25, 2009
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Sylveria said:
Awexsome said:
Haha! Yes! Finally some god damn consequences against those who actually deserve it in this whole piracy thing. Stop going after freaking google and youtube and go after sites like this!
And for all the people using Megaupload/megavideo/etc for perfectly legal reasons? This could happen to any hosting site, and probably will.
For those sites like MegaUpload who obviously benefit from piracy and do little to nothing to prevent it they deserve it. There's a large difference to a site like Youtube which SOPA threatened to a site like MegaUpload.

People using the site for legal reasons should move to a more law-abiding site.
 

skullpile

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Aug 23, 2009
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Awexsome said:
Sylveria said:
Awexsome said:
Haha! Yes! Finally some god damn consequences against those who actually deserve it in this whole piracy thing. Stop going after freaking google and youtube and go after sites like this!
And for all the people using Megaupload/megavideo/etc for perfectly legal reasons? This could happen to any hosting site, and probably will.
For those sites like MegaUpload who obviously benefit from piracy and do little to nothing to prevent it they deserve it. There's a large difference to a site like Youtube which SOPA threatened to a site like MegaUpload.
dude you don't even know what you are talking about megaupload, just like youtube has modirators that take down pirated material, the only difference is that on youtube the video will be called copyrighted material X, but on megaupload the uploader calls the file some random stream of bullshit like 147N987H2ND89H12 so it is near immpossible for the moderators to find. Then he uploader posts the link on a forum or directory and bam the pirates can find it the the mods don't have a clue.
 

wooty

Vi Britannia
Aug 1, 2009
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Shit, where do I get my new anime now? Im certainly not waiting years to finish my shows.
 

Bostur

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Mar 14, 2011
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"racketeering conspiracy, conspiring to commit copyright infringement, conspiring to commit money laundering and two substantive counts of criminal copyright infringement."
Thats a lot of conspiracy theories. Does that mean they had 2 questionable downloads, and a whole lot of naughty thoughts about other crimes?
 

Ariyura

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Oct 18, 2008
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Ligisttomten said:
Hello America. Fix your Government.

Regards, rest of the world.
We're trying, it's not an easy task. Just look at the single minded people we have in power.
 

Owyn_Merrilin

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May 22, 2010
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Awexsome said:
Tay051173096 said:
Awexsome said:
Haha! Yes! Finally some god damn consequences against those who actually deserve it in this whole piracy thing. Stop going after freaking google and youtube and go after sites like this!
Your joking right? If they can set precedent laws with this youtube could well be next with all the anime and music content on there...
No slippery slope bullshit that was actually a threat with SOPA. This is a single takedown of a single site giving blatant disregard for piracy laws and, with this new revelation, was actually encouraging it and giving out benefits to their users for doing it.

There is a distinct difference between MegaUpload's objective and Youtube's. Youtube actually gives a fuck about enforcing piracy laws. Megaupload encouraged breaking it.
It's not bullshit[footnote]well it is, but not in the way you mean it[/footnote]; that's the way the American court system works. Every time a judge makes a ruling on a subject, it sets precedent, which all of the other judges at that level and lower have to pay attention to, as if it was actually the law instead of an (often flawed) interpretation of the law. Bad precedent is never a good thing, and Tay was exactly right: depending on how this goes, precedent that could be used to take down Youtube could very well be set.
 

Cpu46

Gloria ex machina
Sep 21, 2009
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Vohn_exel said:
Wow, maybe they just wanted to see how a SOPA style raid would go. I guess they figured nothing would come of it...and I guess nothing did. Still...I'd be pissed if I couldn't post my videos on youtube (not that they're any good) because people like to post "Fullmetal Alchemist part 3/5" in low quality.
Especially since Fullmetal Alchemist is streamed for free on Hulu in high quality!

OT: Sooooooo one of the reasons we banded against SOPA was to prevent them from doing something they already could do?