Megaupload shut down

I think the difference between this site and Youtube for example, is that Google will listen to your copyright woes, and remove infringing content upon request. Megaupload seemed to deliberately not doing this, and that's probably illegal in some way.

I think, I'm not a lawyer.

"Dick move Unicorn, dick move."

Now they need to remove filesonic, rapidshare, fileserve etc.

Opps, one goes down, 10 emerges.

FUCK, I use megaupload all the time.

Don't break the law, kids. And stay in school, don't do drugs, yada, yada...

Dear DoJ,

Go after some actual criminals. Last I checked there are far worse things on the internet than unpaid for music.

Love,

A Taxpayer

Edit: According to the BBC article the whole operation was instigated two weeks ago. Wonder if they thought SOPA/PIPA were going pass, or at least not have the backers flee.

Pour one out for ol' Megaupload. :(

So when do they get to shut down drop box and other similar online storage services?

@N7 said:

Good. They were all just a bunch of pirate sites anyway.

Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong.   I have downloaded more legal material, such as Android ROMs from Megaupload than I have pirated material.

@Sooty said:

@N7 said:

Good. They were all just a bunch of pirate sites anyway.

Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong.   I have downloaded more legal material, such as Android ROMs from Megaupload than I have pirated material.

Well I downloaded a bunch of crazy illegal shit from there. So I win.

End of Line.

And piratebay still lives...

@Xel said:

@Anwar said:

@N7 said:

@Sooty said:

@N7 said:

Good. They were all just a bunch of pirate sites anyway.

Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong. I have downloaded more legal material, such as Android ROMs from Megaupload than I have pirated material.

Well I downloaded a bunch of crazy illegal shit from there. So I win.

I can watch some copyright infringing stuff on youtube right now, the DoJ better shuts down youtube to stop it.

Exactly.

@Blair said:

@CL60 said:

BULLSHIT. FUCK.

Just for anyone who doesn't know, Kim Schmitz is a scumbag who deserves whatever he gets

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Schmitz

I guess you dont need SOPA to pass to stop people from stealing shit on the internet.

Lax extradition laws aren't the problem here. It's when they're abused for the most frivolous purposes and sidetrack law enforcement officials from deterring real crime. I won't argue whether or not America is over stepping its boundaries as its completely irrelevant especially with Internet matters. As said before, shutting one website down is not going to stop Internet Piracy. In many ways, it's counter-productive as it leaves a gap for other, shadier websites to pick up the slack.

2

GENERAL ALLEGATIONS

At all times relevant to this Indictment:1.

KIM DOTCOM, MEGAUPLOAD LIMITED, VESTOR LIMITED, FINNBATATO, JULIUS BENCKO, SVEN ECHTERNACH, MATHIAS ORTMANN, ANDRUSNOMM, and BRAM VAN DER KOLK, the defendants, and others known and unknown to theGrand Jury, were members of the “Mega Conspiracy,” a worldwide criminal organization whosemembers engaged in criminal copyright infringement and money laundering on a massive scalewith estimated harm to copyright holders well in excess of $500,000,000 and reported income inexcess of $175,000,000

http://www.scribd.com/doc/78786408/Mega-Indictment

They make Megaupload sound like the Mafia. Hahaha.

How does any of that make sense when charged against a website that actively removes copyrighted material?

@Anwar: That was a good read, thanks.

Meh, there are loads more hosting websites.

And yeah, the only reason anyone used that sort of website is for copyrighted material, so it isnt exactly unjust.

@SuperSambo said:

And yeah, the only reason anyone used that sort of website is for copyrighted material, so it isnt exactly unjust.

This is the stupidest attitude ever and is not true at all.

Websites like (and including) Megaupload were what allowed me to download custom made (legal) Android ROMS. Not everybody has their own hosting space and can afford the bandwidth.

Derp. People go on YouTube mostly to watch clips from copyrighted TV shows and listen to copyrighted music. You ok with YouTube getting taken off too?

@Itwastuesday said:

Just for anyone who doesn't know, Kim Schmitz is a scumbag who deserves whatever he gets

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Schmitz

Sounds like a real trustworthy guy. I can't imagine why anyone would suspect him of doing anything illegal.

This is the best comment from the Neogaf thread.

If nothing else comes of this, I hope Kim Schmitz(Kimble) goes down. If there's any oldschool Quake 2 players around, they might remember liga.net, a Q2 ladder/tournament that he owned/ran, which he did some shady shit with(banned top players that beat him and disappeared without paying out to the winners at the end).

@Sooty said:

@SuperSambo said:

And yeah, the only reason anyone used that sort of website is for copyrighted material, so it isnt exactly unjust.

This is the stupidest attitude ever and is not true at all.

Websites like (and including) Megaupload were what allowed me to download custom made (legal) Android ROMS. Not everybody has their own hosting space and can afford the bandwidth.

Derp. People go on YouTube mostly to watch clips from copyrighted TV shows and listen to copyrighted music. You ok with YouTube getting taken off too?

Why are you always so up your own ass?

I didn't say I agreed with it, I said it wasn't unjust.

Lets be honest here, most of the older filesharing web services are home to a bunch of illegal shit that makes it easy to access. MediaFire, RapidShare, FileUpload, etc. can certainly be used for legitimate purposes, but they are almost never are. That's why DropBox and other similar websites are coming around, as they are used less for nefarious purposes and more in terms with cloud storage. In terms of filesharing, there are many other websites that companies use to trade files between departments/companies/employees, and they certainly aren't relying on MegaUpload to get their content. And those using MegaUpload for legit content: that's good for you, but I hate to be honest, you're the three percent that use it that way.

@SuperSambo said:

@Sooty said:

@SuperSambo said:

And yeah, the only reason anyone used that sort of website is for copyrighted material, so it isnt exactly unjust.

This is the stupidest attitude ever and is not true at all.

Websites like (and including) Megaupload were what allowed me to download custom made (legal) Android ROMS. Not everybody has their own hosting space and can afford the bandwidth.

Derp. People go on YouTube mostly to watch clips from copyrighted TV shows and listen to copyrighted music. You ok with YouTube getting taken off too?

Why are you always so up your own ass?

I didn't say I agreed with it, I said it wasn't unjust.

I'm not. I'm merely calling you out for saying something stupid.

We're done here.

Just for anyone who doesn't know, Kim Schmitz is a scumbag who deserves whatever he gets

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Schmitz

@Sooty said:

@SuperSambo said:

@Sooty said:

@SuperSambo said:

And yeah, the only reason anyone used that sort of website is for copyrighted material, so it isnt exactly unjust.

This is the stupidest attitude ever and is not true at all.

Websites like (and including) Megaupload were what allowed me to download custom made (legal) Android ROMS. Not everybody has their own hosting space and can afford the bandwidth.

Derp. People go on YouTube mostly to watch clips from copyrighted TV shows and listen to copyrighted music. You ok with YouTube getting taken off too?

Why are you always so up your own ass?

I didn't say I agreed with it, I said it wasn't unjust.

I'm not. I'm merely calling you out for saying something stupid.

We're done here.

Haha! Nice...

@Sooty said:

@SuperSambo said:

And yeah, the only reason anyone used that sort of website is for copyrighted material, so it isnt exactly unjust.

You ok with YouTube getting taken off too?

To be fair, Youtube really does follow the DMCA's takedown guidelines. Megaupload did not. They would take down the link to illegal content sure, but they wouldn't remove it from their servers. Anyone with a direct link could still access the download. It's not the same situation. Youtube plays nice. Megaupload is run by scummy businessmen trying to make money off of direct piracy.

Having done a good amount of reading and research, my only two outrages here are 1) US being the world police as usual and 2) if we can do this already then why is SOPA/PIPA a thing that needs to be passed?

The lesson to other file sharing sites here is that premium accounts are what piss off these corporations the most. It wasn't about the downloading of copyrighted material as much as it was the fact that Megaupload was making money off of it.

Also that piratebay posting is a serious blow-up about how stupid this whole anti-piracy thing is starting to look.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
 
That's part of my youth.

@Sooty said:

@SuperSambo said:

And yeah, the only reason anyone used that sort of website is for copyrighted material, so it isnt exactly unjust.

You ok with YouTube getting taken off too?

To be fair, Youtube really does follow the DMCA's takedown guidelines. Megaupload did not. They would take down the link to illegal content sure, but they wouldn't remove it from their servers. Anyone with a direct link could still access the download. It's not the same situation. Youtube plays nice. Megaupload is run by scummy businessmen trying to make money off of direct piracy.

@Sooty: their download pages just have links to files on their servers. For instance, look at the podcast page on GB. The direct download link is just a button that takes you to the address of the file. On MegaUpload, they would remove that direct link but keep the file there. If you knew the address of the file it was still possible to access it. Unfortunately MegaUpload is down now, but you can try it for yourself if it ever comes back up. You can read a bit about it here:

!!!!!-I DO NOT KNOW IF THIS WEBSITE IS REPUTABLE I JUST FOUND IT ON GOOGLE- http://www.frihost.com/forums/vt-22965.html -I DO NOT KNOW IF THIS WEBSITE IS REPUTABLE I JUST FOUND IT ON GOOGLE-!!!!

@Anwar: Go ahead and try to flag the video for takedown on copyright grounds. It explicitly states that only copyright holders can notify Youtube to take down their content. Copyright holder isn't aware of it/doesn't care? Nothing can be done.

Meh

Apparently Anonymous is going to launch a massive counter-attack. This shit is ridiculous.

You know how they say "It is better to have loved and lost then never to have loved at all," but in this case I feel like I dodged a bullet by not using Megaupload. I'll never know what I missed out on. The U.S. extending operations beyond its borders is concerning to me though.

Excellent write-up over on Ars Technica on the "why" of this raid (oddly enough the indictment was issued two weeks ago). The investigation has been two years in development. While it might be difficult to defend some of Megauploads actions (and incriminating e-mails), the repercussions a conviction could have regarding how a site promotes itself could be far reaching. It will be an interesting case to follow as it proceeds.

Why the feds smashed Megaupload

Fucking hell I had stuff on there for back up purposes.

shit. something else will replace it in like a week though.

This really sucks. Tons of mods for games and independent downloads came from there, and I've even used it myself before (not to use or upload "copyrighted content" though)

It baffles me the amount of people defending this site. Obviously not everything there was illegal and wrong, but MegaUpload is notorious for skimping when it comes to removing illegal content. It sucks that a site you may have used a lot went down, but that's what happens when you run a shady business, it eventually comes to bite you in the ass.

@PenguinDust said:

Excellent write-up over on Ars Technica on the "why" of this raid (oddly enough the indictment was issued two weeks ago). The investigation has been two years in development. While it might be difficult to defend some of Megauploads actions (and incriminating e-mails), the repercussions a conviction could have regarding how a site promotes itself could be far reaching. It will be an interesting case to follow as it proceeds.

Why the feds smashed Megaupload

Jumping Jesus Christ. If that's all true, then it's no wonder the hammer is coming down on them.

Sites like these actually are pretty useful for transferring/distributing large files in a legal context (which I've done many times), but aside from BitTorrent, they are the biggest means of illegally distributing copyrighted material. If Megaupload actually made a decent show of deterring that sort of activity, I might have some pity on them, but they clearly knew it was their prime money maker and appear to have in fact done a hell of a lot to encourage it.

A lot of people won't like it, but if the fantasy of an all digital future is ever going to become a reality, sites like this have to be dealt with in some manner. Certainly not through means nearly as overbearing or down right dangerous to the future of the internet as SOPA/PIPA, but something has to be done.

I'm trying to feel really sad. Just isn't happening. =-|

"The indictment was unsealed one day after websites including Wikipedia and Craigslist shut down in protest of two congressional proposals intended to make it easier for authorities to go after sites with pirated material, especially those with overseas headquarters and servers."

FUCK THE WASHINGTON POST. Assholes.

@CornBREDX said:

@Sooty: I agree. It's a very strange way to handle it, but I also don't have any answers to a real problem (whether people want to argue the legitimacy of piracy or not is not really my point just for clarification). It's not really going to stop it, I mean realistically the way the internet is (basically a means to share info/data across the world easily) you can never totally stop this kind of thing from happening but more and more Corporations are making serious pushes to stop it. They don't do that unless there is serious call for alarm most times. I don't know, it's just really weird to me as I am kind of conflicted on piracy as it is. I don't condone it but at the same time- when I did what is technically pirating- it was seemingly normal. I didnt even think anyone could care as it wasn't on the scale that kind of stuff is now.

Can you give me an example of when many companies came together for something, because i feel like that only happens for things the people dont want happening. Of course, i will keep an open mind, but as far as i am concerned. Companies will only do things that will force the public to stick to their services.

God am I glad the United States isn't a democracy.