[UPDATE] Feds Take Down Megaupload

[Awexsome]

-snip-

So the head people of the company, running the company, using the services of the company, to reward people through their use of the company, might've had nothing to do with the company?

Ok.

 

[Awexsome]

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!

What about Reave? I made a remix for him a while back and he sent me the patches and midis through Megaupload. What about Ludotk who spreads his music on Mega? What about all legitimate users who have been fucked over?
Megaupload was great and it had the best fucking use of jQuery I've seen for a long time and now it's gone because some ass couldn't buy another solid gold RV.

The legitimate users can use other sites that are more legitimate in their dealings. They did nothing wrong. Money laundering, conspiracy, and near blatant disregard for copyright laws are what Megaupload did wrong.

 

[Awexsome]

And what were they doing to supposedly "encourage" and "reward" pirates again, besides owning a file hosting service very much like youtube?

The indictment accuses the suspects of being members of "the Mega Conspiracy, a worldwide criminal organization whose members engaged in criminal copyright infringement and money laundering on a massive scale."

the indictment noted, "For much of its operation, the Mega Conspiracy has offered an 'Uploader Rewards' Program, which promised premium subscribers transfers of cash and other financial incentives to upload popular works, including copyrighted works, to computer servers under the Mega Conspiracy's direct control and for the Conspiracy's ultimate financial benefit."

That.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/justice-fbi-crack-megaupload/story?id=15396526#.TxirWfnNlGV

MU hasn't had uploader rewards in over 8 months.

Probably shouldn't have commited that crime 8 months ago then.

 

[Vitagen]

Reading this thread, a lot of people seem to be under the impression that this is just the same as what SOPA would do. Not so. SOPA would give the government the power to actually block existing sites (a la China), which (from a rights standpoint) would actually be worse than this. In this case (correct if I'm wrong), the site has been shut down. It's has departed the web. No one can access it. With SOPA, the data would still be out on the internet, but Americans wouldn't be allowed to see it.

The site wasn't set up for the purposes of piracy, that's just a nasty side effect of filesharing, so those being punished really haven't done anything wrong. I suppose the argument can be made that they did little to stop the piracy, but how can any site as massive as MegaUpload be expected to monitor every bit of data for pirated content.
It's still not the same as SOPA though. SOPA is significantly more evil than this.

 

[skullpile]

-snip-

So the head people of the company, running the company, using the services of the company, to reward people through their use of the company, might've had nothing to do with the company?

Ok.

have you ever heard of Bernard Madoff because thats exactly what he, and these people did.

 

[Beryl77]

I must say, I have no idea if it really is or isn't a site that allows users to pirate media, but I think it sounds fishy that Megaupload claims that "the vast majority of Mega's Internet traffic is legitimate" means that they know AT LEAST some of their website visitors are not legit and the fact that so many people seem to think they have violated the law in some way. Can't say I can take a side in this, so I'll stay on the fence until all the blank details are filled in.

Problem is, they delete illegal files but they can't delete ALL of them. They don't look at every file that's been uploaded and pirates don't give them obvious names. The service is used by many musicians giving their albums to their fans and just normal people sharing harmless stuff. Taking it all down because of some misuse it isn't normal. Same logic applied to something else would be to take down the whole internet because some use it for illegal activities. Or making phone companies liable for the crimes that their customers commit with the help of phones. Hell, let's just blame the Wright brothers for 9/11.

Megaupload isn't intendet to be used for piracy but they can't controll what people use it for that easily. Like the article says, the CEO is a music producer. Why would he support piracy?

 

[The Random One]

Yeah, I bet they had it done to flex their muscles and show they're still fighting piracy despite the SOPA protests, but we'll bury them with the sound of our shrugs.

 

[DTWolfwood]

dammit to hell! they are the only ones that gives me my full 6.25MB/s download speed! >.< also have like 3-5 months of my premium sub left!

man this blows gonna have to use torrents to dl anime again?! bah!

 

[Awexsome]

Aha! my first trolling accuser! It's an honor. Look earlier in the thread for the indictment's charges: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/justice-fbi-crack-megaupload/story?id=15396526#.TxirWfnNlGV Call them on bullshit if you want but then I'd take you as just another government conspiracy theorist.

I've read the news post before, and several others like it, thank you. Honestly, from where I'm sitting, it seems like both a bad coincidence and the RIAA tripping (and you don't think it's weird that they decide to crack down some 6 or 7 years after the site was founded?).

Besides, this is a simple indictment, not a conviction. Big difference.

Oh, and I'm certainly not gonna stop you on calling me a... what was it? "Government conspiracy theorist"? If it helps you sleep better tonight, who am I to deny you the peace of sweet dreams knowing you called me... something I care not a fuck about.

Observation: If you honestly think of it an honor to be accused as a "troll", then you're even more of a jackass than I initially assumed, and I sincerely hope all the gods and earths have mercy on your poor soul.

Man... and here I thought I would get through the day without a personal attack... was close though.

 

[5ilver]

I can't see this ending in a good way for humanity or the internet. Also, as said, why did they even need SOPA, lol? Clearly, they can arrest anyone they want to.

 

[jedizero]

It's not drastic though. If you think it is fine. It's a company receiving due punishment for breaking and conspiring to break the law. The thing that probably hurts them worse is the conspiracy part more than just hosting files.

It's hilarious! Like a kid on the playground throwing a hissy fit when the teacher gives them timeout for being caught!

Obvious government shill is obvious.

 

[SageRuffin]

I must say, I have no idea if it really is or isn't a site that allows users to pirate media, but I think it sounds fishy that Megaupload claims that "the vast majority of Mega's Internet traffic is legitimate" means that they know AT LEAST some of their website visitors are not legit and the fact that so many people seem to think they have violated the law in some way. Can't say I can take a side in this, so I'll stay on the fence until all the blank details are filled in.

Problem is, they delete illegal files but they can't delete ALL of them. They don't look at every file that's been uploaded and pirates don't give them obvious names. The service is used by many musicians giving their albums to their fans and just normal people sharing harmless stuff. Taking it all down because of some misuse it isn't normal. Same logic applied to something else would be to take down the whole internet because some use it for illegal activities. Or making phone companies liable for the crimes that their customers commit with the help of phones. Hell, let's just blame the Wright brothers for 9/11.

That's what I just thought. Any file-sharing site is gonna have some level of unsavory activities here and there; like another Escapist said, it's mostly a nasty side effect of the type of site it is. It's doubtful that it can ever be eradicated as it would have to take thousands - at least - of moderators monitoring what flows in and out of the site. Hell, militaries barely have that kind of man-power.

Also, from reading a few of the news stories, it seems the site was shut down by proxy of the guys who run the site doing unsavory activities, not so much from the site itself doing anything terribly explicit. But that's more a limited extrapolation than anything really concrete until more evidence drops. :/

 

[Tony2077]

dammit to hell! they are the only ones that gives me my full 6.25MB/s download speed! >.< also have like 3-5 months of my premium sub left!

man this blows gonna have to use torrents to dl anime again?! bah!

torrents are good for some things but when its illegal its illegal so can't defend that part of them

 

[Sonic Doctor]

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.

Yeah, and some people even pay so that they don't have to see that "you've watched 72 minutes wait 60 minutes to watch more" message. In name, me, well, really my mom, she paid for a year because she retired a year or so ago and one of her favorite activities is watching videos on Megavideo of her favorite shows that she missed, since she has so many favorite shows that she can't watch them all at the same time. And boy, she is really pissed about this.

Considering that they do make a good chuck of change from just one yearly subscriber, I believe it was like 100 dollars for a year, they were probably making quite a bit of money.

Though I've always wondered where that money goes. If they were smart, some of it went to all the different creators/producers involved in making the shows that have been posted on Megavideo. But, who knows, maybe they were raking in 100% of the profits and not giving it to anybody else. Though I think that seems unlikely.

 

[Coldster]

I must say, I have no idea if it really is or isn't a site that allows users to pirate media, but I think it sounds fishy that Megaupload claims that "the vast majority of Mega's Internet traffic is legitimate" means that they know AT LEAST some of their website visitors are not legit and the fact that so many people seem to think they have violated the law in some way. Can't say I can take a side in this, so I'll stay on the fence until all the blank details are filled in.

Problem is, they delete illegal files but they can't delete ALL of them. They don't look at every file that's been uploaded and pirates don't give them obvious names. The service is used by many musicians giving their albums to their fans and just normal people sharing harmless stuff. Taking it all down because of some misuse it isn't normal. Same logic applied to something else would be to take down the whole internet because some use it for illegal activities. Or making phone companies liable for the crimes that their customers commit with the help of phones. Hell, let's just blame the Wright brothers for 9/11.

Megaupload isn't intendet to be used for piracy but they can't controll what people use it for that easily. Like the article says, the CEO is a music producer. Why would he support piracy?

Exactly. I fully agree with you and it is exactly why I am sitting on the fence until more details are given. It doesn't make sense for him to support piracy, then again why would this musician have a "Megaporn" website (or maybe he is only the CEO of Megaupload and has nothing to do with the other sites, I don't know)? I haven't visited any of the sites myself which leaves me with very little in terms of knowledge. I'll just have to wait.

 

[SH4DOWSL4Y3R]

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

This. a hundred times over.

especially since it takes bloody years for them to license the less popular stuff, then often another year, give or take, to be available for me to purchase here in australia.

i highly dislike piracy, but i don't see watching the weekly fansubs until i can actually buy the series as a bad thing.

i guess maybe i'll have to wait 3 or so years till i can watch any of the new series of Eureka seven that airs this year. how disappointing. i'll still be buying it the instant it's available in a complete collection though. hopefully it'll be good.

please note that i AM NOT condoning piracy. i have a friend that often tells me to "just pirate it" when i go through stores looking for particular dvds or albums from not very well known artists, and it infuriates me. i like to purchase things legitimately as soon as i have the means to do so.

that being said, it sucks that i won't be able to play ME3, because i adamantly refuse to get origin or pirate it. hopefully EA will give up on throwing a hissy fit at valve and it will eventually turn up on steam one day...

 

[esperandote]

People with premium accounts really got screwed.

Also, Megaporn? How come I never heard of it before!!?

 

[Avaloner]

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.

Can you stop your corporate bullshitting?

Its obvious that this is a reaction of Megauploads fight against SOPA, not to mention that they planned a new model of down loading music, that would have evaded the big companys and actually got most profits to the singer, instead of the usual rather small slice they get.

Megaupload, just like youtube, always deleted illegal content, every upload, that was found and reported, was taken down. Claiming that the reward system would just have been used by pirates is just dumb as hell, there was a ton of free games, videos, gamemods, pictures and music on those servers, actually a good way for some young and upstarting musician to get viewmoney from youtube aswell as downloadmoney from megaupload.

So instead of puking out Fox News, you should maybe use your head for more than just wearing a hat.

 

[Something Amyss]

Wow. Makes you wonder why they thought they even needed SOPA in the first place.

Or why people think this is what will happen as a result of SOPA.

 

[esperandote]

The indictment goes after six individuals, who between them owned 14 Mercedes-Benz automobiles with license plates such as "POLICE," "MAFIA," "V," "STONED," "CEO," "HACKER," GOOD," "EVIL," and?perhaps presciently?"GUILTY." The group also had a 2010 Maserati, a 2008 Rolls-Royce, and a 1989 Lamborghini. They had not one but three Samsung 83" TVs, and two Sharp 108" TVs. Someone owned a "Predator statue." Motor bikes, jet skis, artwork, and even 60 Dell servers could all be forfeit to the government if it can prove its case against the members of the "Mega Conspiracy."

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/why-the-feds-smashed-megaupload.ars

Dibs on that Predator Statue