Crime Megaupload Shut Down on Piracy Charges

[seph ir oth]

Megaupload, one of the world's most popular file-sharing sites, was shut down by federal prosecutors in Virginia following charges against its founder and others for violating piracy laws. An indictment accuses the company of costing copyright holders over $500 million in revenue for pirated music, television, movies, video games and other content. The company claims it had been diligent in responding to complaints from copyright holders demanding that material be removed from the site in accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

U.S. Authorities Shut Down Megaupload for Piracy

Justice department drops the hammer on Megaupload, arresting its leaders, seizing hundreds of millions of dollars in property and blasting the popular file-sharing website in a 72-page indictment.

www.hollywoodreporter.com

This was just posted an hour ago, I'm sure more will come up about it.

EDIT: READ THE THREAD FOR MORE NEWS

 

[Sevion]

Spoiler

[video=youtube;o0Wvn-9BXVc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0Wvn-9BXVc[/video]

Upload to me today!

 

[UndeadDragon]

Whut?

Fuck you anti-piracy and SOPA and PIPA.

 

[seph ir oth]

The Internet Strikes Back: Anonymous Takes Down DOJ.gov, RIAA, MPAA Sites To Protest Megaupload Seizure

I'll have a more detailed look at the Megaupload indictment tomorrow (there are some really ridiculous claims in there, but also some evidence of bad actions on the part of Mega, which isn't too surprising). However, even if you're 100% positive that Megaupload was a bad player in the space, you have to question both the timing and the process of completely taking down the site/company the day after practically the entire internet rose up to protest the threat of similar takedowns under SOPA/PIPA. For them not to think the reaction would be fast and furious shows (yet again) just how incredibly, ridiculously, out of touch with the internet the DC establishment is.

Within minutes of the site being shut down, and DOJ releasing its statement, Anonymous sprang into action and started taking down a ton of sites -- including websites for the DOJ, the US Copyright Office, Universal Music, the RIAA, the MPAA and a bunch of other sites. They're apparently still targeting more.

Read more here.

Just .... lol.

 

[Sim]

I think what Anonymous is doing might Backfire on the Internet as a whole.

The United States government has often had a culture of designing an "Enemy of the State" at some point, something that needs to be fought against, and heavily relying on media fear tactics to propagate the message that it's, as a matter of fact, an "Enemy" of the US. The Evil Iraq, evil terrorists, Japanese (second war) and so on and on (not to say they aren't evil, just the way they are being designated and pointed at by the govt as absolute antagonists of the US). The problem resides in the fact that once an enemy has been designated, the US as a country mobilizes every effort on shutting it down, often relying on extreme removal methods.

If the United States govt deem the "Internet" and Anonymous their official "Enemies of the State" one day, we can expect even more support toward the SOPA and PIPA causes from that. Not quite support from the population, which is optional, but support from those who are in positions of power - the government officials, and the call on extreme removal methods.

Such as an Internet Kill Switch of some sort, in claim of protecting the average citizen from the evil Internet (which might be one day defined as such, who knows?), or any other extreme method of fighting it (SOPA and PIPA are nothing compared to other measures a govt can think of).

 

[Slapshot136]

more in-depth article

there are and will continue to be alternatives... personally I liked MU though, especially since recently they removed the "wait time" for downloads - I guess it was because they saw this coming

 

[Ninva]

I don't know about you guys, but Japan bombed the shit out of the Americans in WWII. I think America had reasonable cause to go into that war. o.o

 

[Slapshot136]

I don't know about you guys, but Japan bombed the shit out of the Americans in WWII. I think America had reasonable cause to go into that war. o.o

you mean they bombed one military base? - I agree that it was a reason to go to war, along with the formal declaration of war from Japan, but I wouldn't say "bombed the shit out of"

 

[WildTurkey]

I wouldn't say "bombed the shit out of"

Someone obviously hasn't seen the movie Pearl Harbour

 

[Sevion]

Someone obviously hasn't seen the movie Pearl Harbour

Someone obviously hasn't heard of Great Britain and World War II.

 

[duderock101]

Someone obviously hasn't heard of Great Britain and World War II.

Owned. Think this battle should be fought legally, head on. If people start hacking away like someone, living in their mothers basement with little life would do, then it's not going to accomplish anything.

They're trying to win this SOPA argument by instilling fear into the Government that they could continue to take down every single government website. I don't think the US will allow themselves to be threatened by that. But then i'm from the UK, so I wouldn't really know

 

[FireCat]

Oh crap Well, Internet is such a harsh place. Isn't it ?

 

[Crusher]

The truth is, we all have our own little dirty secret (which includes piracy downloads) no matter what you say, we all did it.

And because of SOPA we all should go to jail by that logic?

America is just getting more ignorant with douches who control it everday.

 

[Darkrider]

i really think the problem is not copyrighted material being available online. But people not caring to pay for other people's work. And according to bombing the sh** out of someone... japan ate 2 nukes in cities full of civilians, Britain got bombed all the time from afar with v1s and v2s.

 

[Wargasm]

Megaupload had it coming.
Shame though, i used it alot.

These actions however create side effects. Side effects wich i am not sure off if they are taken into account.
In 1999 we had the debate who should oversee the internet. The most logical answer was the UN. Since the internet is global a global organisation shouldbe in control of it.
We'll all know how that turned out. The USA not wanting to give control to the UN, instead this wonderfull construction was created by the Clinton administration called ICANN.

Since 2004 the short comings when it comes to such matters are becoming painfully clear. And overtime it came only more clear what paperless tiger the USA had created.
Not only created but also under heavy flak from the same goverment that gave them no tools to enforce.

You could compare this to sending a soldier into a war without weapons and when the soldier is defeated, blame the soldier for not doing it's job.

However now the entertainment is in full force to defend their way outdated business models something has to give.
Side effects :
The contract between ICANN and Verisign is up for a renewal. I expect that ICANN will renew the contract.
IANA's contract with ICANN is long due for renewal.
And ICANN's contract with the NTIA has to renewed also at sometime.

Several countries are already pushing for UN control of the global internet.
This is not new.. but till now these countries have been ignored for all these years.. But as you noticed we are living in volatile times and the internet landscape is changing extremly fast.

I wouldn't be suprised if the USA keeps pushing or actually the entertainment lobby in this case that it will backfire on them in the future .

The old ways how people watch movies or TV have changed due to tablets, smartphones. The entertainment industry has barely changed.

Something has to give and if the USA is not carefull they will lose the control to the UN.

 

[xPass]

Wait, imagine if they converted real life wars to hacking wars
That'd be so cool! No more fatalities, but to see who wins in hacking the other country's dedicated server for "war"
I'm a genius.

Haha, not really a genius, but a genius.
jk about the genius part :x

 

[Zerocaliber]

Wait, imagine if they converted real life wars to hacking wars
That'd be so cool! No more fatalities, but to see who wins in hacking the other country's dedicated server for "war"
I'm a genius.

Haha, not really a genius, but a genius.
jk about the genius part :x

Or! We can create something like an Institution of war run by magic users called summoners. Rather than wars, we will let the countries select their champion and summoners will control the actions of said champion. They will play a game with three lanes and towers with the objective being to destroy some central nexus of sorts. Then, political disputes can be solved based on the outcome of the match! Genius! Wait...this sounds familiar...

Also, the hacker thing...that's all fine and dandy till someone decides to build a real army and just crush you with force.

 

[Hatebreeder]

OR SOPA/PIPA can piss off.

I'm more concerned about the flow of information being stopped. The Internet is not a media that the government is meant to control, afterall that would take away the freedoms of an individual.
Now, MegaUpload or generally Upload Sites can NEVER be 100% guaranteed to secure Copyright Material and take it down. What the Government is asking for is just out of Boundries and I personally think their demands are ridiculous. Why are they doing this again? Is it really about Copyright, or is there a greater machination behind it?
If they wanted to strictly secure the Copyright Rights, they would have never allowed the founding of Upload Companies.

 

[MrBrooks]

MegaUpload is back. You have to access it via an IP Address for now. They're working on getting it back to how it was. http://109.236.83.66/

 

[Lobster]

Megaupload had it coming.
Shame though, i used it alot.

Ya, I used it occasionally.

Something has to give and if the USA is not carefull they will lose the control to the UN.

What would be the end result of this?

Or! We can create something like an Institution of war run by magic users called summoners. Rather than wars, we will let the countries select their champion and summoners will control the actions of said champion. They will play a game with three lanes and towers with the objective being to destroy some central nexus of sorts. Then, political disputes can be solved based on the outcome of the match! Genius! Wait...this sounds familiar...

Also, the hacker thing...that's all fine and dandy till someone decides to build a real army and just crush you with force.

I think hackers call that brute forcing