Megaupload shut down

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/blogs/gear-up/megaupload-shut-down-on-piracy-charges-20120119

Rapidshare is next...

Just imagine all the "blogspot" owners who must be scrambling to re-up dead MegaUpload links right now.

So I take it the SOPA / PIPA bill passed, despite Wikipedia and others going black for the day?

I read that most the backers of the bill had pulled out

Maybe not...the link within the link has more details...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/technology/indictment-charges-megaupload-site-with-piracy.html

Looks like the SOPA/ PIPA thing is still only being considered, but this Megaupload prosecution has been in the works for some time. They certainly picked a jolly good time to actually go through with it.

It sounds like most of the politicians that were backing the SOPA/PIPA bills have caved under the enormous onslaught of social media protests. Piracy needs to be fought, but censoring is never an option and shouldn't even be considered in a nation supposedly built on freedom.

If this has just happened, then the case has been in the works for a while. Not even with SOPA or PIPA passed will websites just "suddenly" close down.

S.D. wrote:

It sounds like most of the politicians that were backing the SOPA/PIPA bills have caved under the enormous onslaught of social media protests. Piracy needs to be fought, but censoring is never an option and shouldn't even be considered in a nation supposedly built on freedom.

I agree but i do think file sharing sites run rampant with illegal material. They claim they dont have the resources to monitor content but to me thats not an excuse. I think if the sites maintained proper controls, they would catch thieves and prevent things like this from happening.

exact33 wrote:

S.D. wrote:

It sounds like most of the politicians that were backing the SOPA/PIPA bills have caved under the enormous onslaught of social media protests. Piracy needs to be fought, but censoring is never an option and shouldn't even be considered in a nation supposedly built on freedom.

I agree but i do think file sharing sites run rampant with illegal material. They claim they dont have the resources to monitor content but to me thats not an excuse. I think if the sites maintained proper controls, they would catch thieves and prevent things like this from happening.

How many employees would that require? Most of these "companies" are just a server farm somewhere. I wouldn't even venture a guess as to how many people it would take to monitor millions of files uploaded worldwide looking for copyright infringement.

S.D. wrote:

exact33 wrote:

S.D. wrote:

It sounds like most of the politicians that were backing the SOPA/PIPA bills have caved under the enormous onslaught of social media protests. Piracy needs to be fought, but censoring is never an option and shouldn't even be considered in a nation supposedly built on freedom.

I agree but i do think file sharing sites run rampant with illegal material. They claim they dont have the resources to monitor content but to me thats not an excuse. I think if the sites maintained proper controls, they would catch thieves and prevent things like this from happening.

How many employees would that require? Most of these "companies" are just a server farm somewhere. I wouldn't even venture a guess as to how many people it would take to monitor millions of files uploaded worldwide looking for copyright infringement.

I dont think that absolves them from due diligence. Simply saying 'I cannot do it' doesnt remove the liability for harboring illegal material on one's network. My company has a ton of users but they still go to great lengths to ensure people dont place pirated software/material on their various networks and environments. Whole departments of people exist to prevent the company from liability of unlicensed material.

S.D.'s right. Those MegaUpload servers are used by hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people all over the world. Doesn't matter how diligent they could be about rooting out illegal material (and I gather it probably wasn't very diligent, if at all), but realistically there is simply no way they could've policed everything on their servers 24-7.

Fat Freddy wrote:

S.D.'s right. Those MegaUpload servers are used by hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people all over the world. Doesn't matter how diligent they could be about rooting out illegal material (and I gather it probably wasn't very diligent, if at all), but realistically there is simply no way they could've policed everything on their servers 24-7.

then it really should come as no surprise they were taken down for harboring illegal material. If you are in business and dont take any precautions other than to say 'we are too big to fail' then they open themselves up for the consequences.

Some hackers took revenge

http://gizmodo.com/5877679/anonymous-kills-department-of-justice-site-in-megaupload-revenge-strike

exact33 wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

S.D.'s right. Those MegaUpload servers are used by hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people all over the world. Doesn't matter how diligent they could be about rooting out illegal material (and I gather it probably wasn't very diligent, if at all), but realistically there is simply no way they could've policed everything on their servers 24-7.

then it really should come as no surprise they were taken down for harboring illegal material. If you are in business and dont take any precautions other than to say 'we are too big to fail' then they open themselves up for the consequences.

Of course, there's also the possibility that they simply didn't give a f*ck.


These sites (MegaUpLoad, RapidShare, Pirate Bay, etc.) usually take a "We didn't do it, our users did it, nobody saw it, you can't prove anything" tack when they get busted.

GODDAMMITTT.

exact33 wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

S.D.'s right. Those MegaUpload servers are used by hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people all over the world. Doesn't matter how diligent they could be about rooting out illegal material (and I gather it probably wasn't very diligent, if at all), but realistically there is simply no way they could've policed everything on their servers 24-7.

then it really should come as no surprise they were taken down for harboring illegal material. If you are in business and dont take any precautions other than to say 'we are too big to fail' then they open themselves up for the consequences.

If you stole thousands of dollars from someone, deposited in your bank, should your bank be shut down for receiving stolen property?

Eyesore wrote:

exact33 wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

S.D.'s right. Those MegaUpload servers are used by hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people all over the world. Doesn't matter how diligent they could be about rooting out illegal material (and I gather it probably wasn't very diligent, if at all), but realistically there is simply no way they could've policed everything on their servers 24-7.

then it really should come as no surprise they were taken down for harboring illegal material. If you are in business and dont take any precautions other than to say 'we are too big to fail' then they open themselves up for the consequences.

If you stole thousands of dollars from someone, deposited in your bank, should your bank be shut down for receiving stolen property?

Not if just one person was doing it. But let's say one bank is holding accounts to a coupla million "questionable" customers that the govt. has been monitoring. At some point, the owner of that bank is gonna have to answer some questions. Claiming ignorace will only get oyou so far, especially if your profiting off of the illegal content.

Swiss banks were brought to task after the war because they were holding German accounts. The "Hey, we didn't know it was Hitler's slush fund, we're just a bank" didn't fly.

It's all about the numbers. If Megaupload were hosting one or 2 illegal sites, noone would care. But were talking thousands, if not millions.

I think King has a point. Companies have to take some sort of responsibilites toward this stuff. True, it's too big and complicated to police it now. Pandora's box has been opened. But just shrugging their shoulders and saying "Well, I didn't know that was happening, I was too busy counting stacks of money" ain't gonna cut it.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Eyesore wrote:

exact33 wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

S.D.'s right. Those MegaUpload servers are used by hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people all over the world. Doesn't matter how diligent they could be about rooting out illegal material (and I gather it probably wasn't very diligent, if at all), but realistically there is simply no way they could've policed everything on their servers 24-7.

then it really should come as no surprise they were taken down for harboring illegal material. If you are in business and dont take any precautions other than to say 'we are too big to fail' then they open themselves up for the consequences.

If you stole thousands of dollars from someone, deposited in your bank, should your bank be shut down for receiving stolen property?

Not if just one person was doing it. But let's say one bank is holding accounts to a coupla million "questionable" customers that the govt. has been monitoring. At some point, the owner of that bank is gonna have to answer some questions. Claiming ignorace will only get oyou so far, especially if your profiting off of the illegal content.

Swiss banks were brought to task after the war because they were holding German accounts. The "Hey, we didn't know it was Hitler's slush fund, we're just a bank" didn't fly.

It's all about the numbers. If Megaupload were hosting one or 2 illegal sites, noone would care. But were talking thousands, if not millions.

I think King has a point. Companies have to take some sort of responsibilites toward this stuff. True, it's too big and complicated to police it now. Pandora's box has been opened. But just shrugging their shoulders and saying "Well, I didn't know that was happening, I was too busy counting stacks of money" ain't gonna cut it.

Excellent postings and I agree 100%

Eyesore wrote:

exact33 wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

S.D.'s right. Those MegaUpload servers are used by hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people all over the world. Doesn't matter how diligent they could be about rooting out illegal material (and I gather it probably wasn't very diligent, if at all), but realistically there is simply no way they could've policed everything on their servers 24-7.

then it really should come as no surprise they were taken down for harboring illegal material. If you are in business and dont take any precautions other than to say 'we are too big to fail' then they open themselves up for the consequences.

If you stole thousands of dollars from someone, deposited in your bank, should your bank be shut down for receiving stolen property?

not shut down but yes, banks cannot just turn the blind eye. Banks do have a duty to question source of funds under the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970, SAR, and other statutes. Sums in excess of $10,000 in a single transaction are subject to report to the Fed for verification to ensure the bank is not harboring stolen funds or is being targeted for money laundering.

I wonder if these companies could pay a license fee kinda/sorta like a club or bar pays to BMI/ASAP to have cover bands play at their establishment ?

The logic of it's toooooooooooooo big to monitor is like saying, "we can't police our border with the resources we have.....so let's just let everyone in."

For once, I love hackers!

You cannot stop the internet.

Megalupload has been targeted for a while, it's just coming on the heels of the SOPA outrage.

Andy wrote:

You cannot stop the internet.

Megalupload has been targeted for a while, it's just coming on the heels of the SOPA outrage.

I agree you cannot stop the internet but that doesnt mean its a license to steal.

I think it's just sick this guy was making millions out of it all, while the people who actually help make the records are struggling. I forget his name, the fat guy in New Zealand?

This guys says everyone who used mega, the government has their IP addresses, every single person even if they used proxy's to hide their IP's, and will charge $150,000 for EACH song, each copyright infringement, and if they don't pay, they will be jailed.


MegaUpload Dangerous Secrets affect YOU, Mike Mozart JeepersMedia ACTA / PIPA / SOPA



See More Evidence of how CNET / CBS caused the Phenomenon of Piracy with the Help of So-Branded Partners such as AOL and the MSN Network
http://onecandleinthedark.blogspot.com