Megaupload Shut Down, Employees Indicted

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Hot off the news wire, federal prosecutors have shut down Megaupload and indicted its founder and several employees. :eek:

The indictment accuses the company of costing copyright holders more than $500 million in lost revenue from pirated films and other content. The indictment was unsealed Thursday, one day after websites shut down in protest of two congressional proposals intended to thwart the online piracy of copyrighted movies and TV programs. Megaupload.com has claimed it is diligent in responding to complaints about pirated material.
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well... that kinda sucks.

and i'm really curious where that $500million in lost revenue comes from.
 
I know.

Lets prevent government leaks, and theft of confidential information from corporations by banning all phones and email. :rolleyes:

You can't stop piracy by stopping file transmissions or the companies that have products enabling it. File transmissions are a necessary part of the internet.

These people would sue the manufacturer of a screwdriver if it were used to try to break into their houses. It's ridiculous.

Let's face it. The tool isn't the problem.
 
They just had a big compliation video with tons of celebs promoting it which they tried to censor too. Guess they're going straight to the balls.

I see this being a piratebay deal, they'll find a way to still be open during litigation. I know a ton of people that use it just for everyday files and quickly uploading things to send to people.
 
Again, you don't shut down banks for holding the funds of illegal activities. You ask the banks to cooperate in monitoring and limiting illegal activity. While megaupload may have had users upload copyrighted material, it wasn't mega upload themselves who were uploading the material.

While the economy is underperforming, how about we demolish peoples' legitimate jobs! MPAA and RIAA ftl.
 
Maplehamwich said:
Again, you don't shut down banks for holding the funds of illegal activities. You ask the banks to cooperate in monitoring and limiting illegal activity. While megaupload may have had users upload copyrighted material, it wasn't mega upload themselves who were uploading the material.

While the economy is underperforming, how about we demolish peoples' legitimate jobs! MPAA and RIAA ftl.
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Actually, the US gov't merely sanctions banks. And directly freezes accounts.
 
Maplehamwich said:
Again, you don't shut down banks for holding the funds of illegal activities. You ask the banks to cooperate in monitoring and limiting illegal activity. While megaupload may have had users upload copyrighted material, it wasn't mega upload themselves who were uploading the material.

While the economy is underperforming, how about we demolish peoples' legitimate jobs! MPAA and RIAA ftl.
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yea but this gives lawyers and judges plenty to do. oh wait, you said legitimate jobs... my bad.
 
$500 million was for the 3 copies of Sister Act 2 that were uploaded. Well, if we go by what the assholes responsible for this complete waste of time go by.
 
So what exactly were people scared the government could do with SOPA and PIPA which they cant do now?
 
I wonder what they want to accomplish apart from moving such hosting services to coutries where noone cares
 
I don't see how they can be shutdown as long as they have been conforming to DMCA complaints??

BTW they did the same thing to isonews.com 10 years ago and it didn't even have any links or anything, it was just a dupechecker.
 
The sun never sets on the American empire!

Americannia rules the seizures!

Nobody is outside of our reach. Nobody. You hear that, other countries? Pay attention to our laws; they are enforceable worldwide.

We don't even need SOPA. We can shut down anyone, anytime, anywhere. Suck it, world.
 
Maplehamwich said:
Again, you don't shut down banks for holding the funds of illegal activities. You ask the banks to cooperate in monitoring and limiting illegal activity. While megaupload may have had users upload copyrighted material, it wasn't mega upload themselves who were uploading the material.

While the economy is underperforming, how about we demolish peoples' legitimate jobs! MPAA and RIAA ftl.
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Megaupload had a record of failing to take down reported material or lying about it having been removed. On top of that, the branches Megavideo and Porn were literally 99% illegal material. If it's a bank where only illegal activity takes place, then you look into it.
 
hesho said:
well... that kinda sucks.

and i'm really curious where that $500million in lost revenue comes from.
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The dollar figure likely was yanked out of the rectal cavity of someone who filed the complaint/suit.
 
Jaerb4 said:
Megaupload had a record of failing to take down reported material or lying about it having been removed. On top of that, the branches Megavideo and Porn were literally 99% illegal material. If it's a bank where only illegal activity takes place, then you look into it.
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You seem to know more history of megaupload than most. Do you agree with the shut down and the way it was handled?
 
Jaerb4 said:
Megaupload had a record of failing to take down reported material or lying about it having been removed. On top of that, the branches Megavideo and Porn were literally 99% illegal material. If it's a bank where only illegal activity takes place, then you look into it.
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I send a lot of dmca complaints and megaupload has always taken them down for me within 24 hours.
 
I'm sure they will recover that 500 million in no time...might as well make it a bazillion in losses if your just going to pull numbers out of your ass.
 
how on earth did they come up with $500 mil? just because someone pirates something does not automatically mean they would have bought it legitly. Like sure, I'd like to steal a Lamborghini, but does that mean I would buy one if i hadn't stolen one (considering I can't afford one)?
 
Illegal immigrants cost us billions, but this administration has decided to turn a blind eye to that issue.
 
bubbles said:
I send a lot of dmca complaints and megaupload has always taken them down for me within 24 hours.
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Really? At any given time I can find just about any episode of any show or movie on Megavideo.

You can go to Sidereel or tv-links and most of the links of the current seasons will still be working, and it's not hard to find it for past seasons either.

I think that's part of the reason the FBI was involved in the first place, failure to abide by DMCA complaints.
 
Jaerb4 said:
Really? At any given time I can find just about any episode of any show or movie on Megavideo.

You can go to Sidereel or tv-links and most of the links of the current seasons will still be working, and it's not hard to find it for past seasons either.

I think that's part of the reason the FBI was involved in the first place, failure to abide by DMCA complaints.
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On top of all that, MegaUpload makes a lot of money through the illegal content, which makes it even worse. You can say it can be used for legal means but I bet if you go through the server records, the vast majority of content on the Mega sites was illegal and according to the indictment, unlike Youtube, they never made a reasonable attempt to deal with them.
 
http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/6288082/Kiwis-arrested-in-internet-piracy-bust

Now I'm really pissed. Get your grubby hands out of our country damn corrupt US cops.

I did not even know megaupload had pirated stuff, I've used rapidshare and megaupload plenty of times to transfer legitimate files around.

Interesting thing is that megaupload was not even run from the US... Company was registered in Hong Kong, run buy some Dutch living in New Zealand. Damn scary to think that the US have enough financial leverage on the world to arrest people in any country for whatever crime they see fit.

Since rapidshare is based in Switzerland I think it is safe.
 
ljbade said:
Interesting thing is that megaupload was not even run from the US... Company was registered in Hong Kong, run buy some Dutch living in New Zealand. Damn scary to think that the US have enough financial leverage on the world to arrest people in any country for whatever crime they see fit.
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More horrifying is that the MPAA and the RIAA have so much influence.
 
ljbade said:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/6288082/Kiwis-arrested-in-internet-piracy-bust

Now I'm really pissed. Get your grubby hands out of our country damn corrupt US cops.

I did not even know megaupload had pirated stuff, I've used rapidshare and megaupload plenty of times to transfer legitimate files around.

Interesting thing is that megaupload was not even run from the US... Company was registered in Hong Kong, run buy some Dutch living in New Zealand. Damn scary to think that the US have enough financial leverage on the world to arrest people in any country for whatever crime they see fit.
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It has little to do with financial leverage. You could probably reverse the tables and the US would allow NZ to extradite someone too.

And the guy wasn't just some random Dutch guy. He's a German hacker who has done loads of prison-worthy things and he seems like sort of a douche bag. He legally changed his name to Kim Dotcom...

It actually reminds me of the beneficiaries of Kwame Kilpatrick or even the mob families complaining when the federal government took them down.
 
Jaerb4 said:
On top of all that, MegaUpload makes a lot of money through the illegal content, which makes it even worse. You can say it can be used for legal means but I bet if you go through the server records, the vast majority of content on the Mega sites was illegal and according to the indictment, unlike Youtube, they never made a reasonable attempt to deal with them.
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The irony is that the same companies that are going after these people have made lots of money from piracy by distributing the tools to download content for years...

Regarding the dollars figures -- the following article pertains to SOPA and PIPA but it explains were all these companies and lobbies get their big numbers declared as their loss in revenue:

How Copyright Industries Con Congress
 
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