Posted January 20, 2012 Mega annoying. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jan/19/us-government-megaupload-piracy-indictment The US government has closed down one of the world's largest filesharing websites, accusing its founders of racketeering, money laundering and presiding over "massive" online piracy. According to prosecutors, Megaupload illegally cheated copyright holders out of $500m in revenue as part of a criminal enterprise spanning five years. A lawyer for Megaupload told the Guardian it would "vigorously" defend itself against the charges, dismissing the criminal action as "a civil case in disguise". Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 20, 2012 I wonder where they got that $500m figure. Anyway, MegaUpload actually was a site that hosted plenty of illegal stuff, so I'm not surprised that proper legal action is being taken against them, I'm even surprised it took this long. The timing with SOPA's protest, however, is something that I can't quite point out whether it's good or not. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 20, 2012 Well, I did use it for streaming for a couple of shows. Copyright holders cheat themselves out of money when they don't make their own streaming services, or sites like Hulu and Netflix, available to the less cool people in my opinion. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 20, 2012 Anyway, MegaUpload actually was a site that hosted plenty of illegal stuff, so I'm not surprised that proper legal action is being taken against them, I'm even surprised it took this long.So are dozens, maybe hundreds of other filesharing sites. But they also account for about 1/4 of corporate file transfers etc.. I don't see how you can arrest someone for what is uploaded to their site by other people. It's like arresting a bank manager because someone put a gun in a safety deposit box in their bank. Do Megaupload really have a responsibility to look through the millions of files uploaded to their servers? If anything, they could be reprimanded for knowing it and not doing much about it, but I don't see what they could've done. I could upload a pirate movie in a file called "work_backup.zip", how would you automate preventing that? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 20, 2012 There's a lot more to it apparently than just "copyright infringement" http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/why-the-feds-smashed-megaupload.ars Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 20, 2012 You only need to look at SOPA to see why MegaUpload has been shut down. I would ask people to be a bit wary about stuff being said about MegaUpload on Twitter and Tumblr, apparently Anonymous has been posting some nasty stuff to use your IP. How considerate of them. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 20, 2012 So are dozens, maybe hundreds of other filesharing sites. But they also account for about 1/4 of corporate file transfers etc.. I don't see how you can arrest someone for what is uploaded to their site by other people. It's like arresting a bank manager because someone put a gun in a safety deposit box in their bank. Do Megaupload really have a responsibility to look through the millions of files uploaded to their servers? If anything, they could be reprimanded for knowing it and not doing much about it, but I don't see what they could've done. I could upload a pirate movie in a file called "work_backup.zip", how would you automate preventing that? Mmm true - and in fairness half the time when I try and download shows from the site they're taken down within a few hours of being uploaded. Still, your analogy doesn't quite work because the majority of uploads to megaupload are, I would guess, illegal. I suspect the majority of downloads from the site are just illegal versions of TV / Music / Films / whatever. You could probably blame the bank if the majority of their safety deposit boxes contained guns or whatever. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 20, 2012 I suppose, I guess without thinking about it I assumed the majority would be legal, but that's far from likely isn't it... Still I hope these guys get off lightly, I doubt they ever really felt like they were doing anything wrong. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 20, 2012 When asked to remove content from their site, they only removed a single link and not the actual content. The FBI also has records of their staff actively searching for TV shows and stuff. They completely understood what they were doing. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 20, 2012 (edited) I was under the impression they refused taking down files when asked by the copyright holders? Or am I thinking about another file-hosting website? After a quick search, I don't see much, so maybe I jumped to conclusions. EDIT: Lol, Cube ninja-confirmed my original suspicions Edited January 20, 2012 by Jonnas Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 20, 2012 Did they have to wait 60 seconds before the shut down link appeared? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 20, 2012 I suppose, I guess without thinking about it I assumed the majority would be legal, but that's far from likely isn't it... Still I hope these guys get off lightly, I doubt they ever really felt like they were doing anything wrong. I think it's also that they were profiting from it in a very large way. Did they have to wait 60 seconds before the shut down link appeared? And 6 minutes into the process they got a message saying they'd used their 72 minutes allowance. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 20, 2012 I have downloaded a lot of pornography using Megaupload. So this is a bit of a blow..... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 20, 2012 Big enough to make BBC national news, makes me curious if it would still have done if the whole SOPA/PIPA thing wasn't happening now too. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 20, 2012 Probably not. Also I love that everyone has jumped to Megaupload's defence... when... in all honesty we know exactly what Megaupload was really used for. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 20, 2012 (edited) Details behind Megaupload US government document A lot of people in "the media" have been talking about the case today, but no one seems to have taken the time to read through the leaked 72-page US government document regarding the indictment. What with Megaupload down, we had nothing better to do so we read the whole thing cover to cover. Here are the juicy details: - The indictment points to "popular linking" sites that help drive traffic to Megaupload. They name Ninjavideo, but Icefilms is never mentioned. How old is this thing? - Elite employees at Megaupload had access to an unadulterated search engine of Megaupload's contents. That is fucking awesome. - Once Google realized what Megaupload was up to, they pulled all of their Adsense ads. Megaupload responded by developing their own advertising network called Megaclick. - The DMCA compliant tool Megaupload had installed to help major US institutions pull copyrighted files from Mega servers was, of course, flawed. If a user uploaded something like, say, The Hangover, Megaupload would search its servers for a matching file. It would delete the link submitted despite knowing about tens or hundreds or even thousands of other links to the same file. Basically it was a super clever fuck you to the copyright holder. - The US government is clinging to evidence that Megaupload's owner, Kim Dotcom, shared the song "Nah" by 50 Cent featuring Mobb Deep in 2006. Seriously. This is one of their major claims. "On or about December 3, 2006, KIM DOTCOM distributed a Megaupload.com link to a music file entitled “05-50_cent_feat._mobb_deep-nah-c4.mp3." He is also accused of having a really fucking stupid name. - Kim is a resident of Hong Kong and New Zealand. He is also a citizen of Finland and Germany. - According to the US government, Kim made $42 million off of Megaupload in 2010. - Megaupload has servers in Virginia, DC, California, and Toronto. - $110 million has flowed through Mega's Paypal account since 2006. - Megaupload sought to download and re-upload all of YouTube's content onto its own site, Megavideo, to mask the pirated content that lurked beneath its front page. - "Mega Conspiracy has paid more than $65 million to hosting providers around the world for computer leasing, hosting, bandwidth… Mega Conspiracy affirmatively chose to financially reward specific uploaders of infringing copies of copyrighted content." - Private emails between Megaupload employees make it very clear that they were were running an illegal operation but didn't really care. In one exchange, an employee wrote, “We have a funny business... modern days pirates ” to which another responded, “We’re not pirates, we’re just providing shipping services to pirates ” - Thanks to their rewards program for loyal uploaders, they paid out 55k to a user who had 5,845 files of Vietnamese content, at least 10 DVD rips, some porn, and (what looked like) an Italian TV series. - Megaupload was paying Carpathia, their Virginia-based hosting company, between $700,000 and $1 million per month from a bank account in Hong Kong. - Cogent Communications, an Atlanta-based ISP, was making a steady $1 million per month from May 2009 until February 2011. - Megaupload spent $7.955M in less than 3 months on yacht rentals in June 2011 alone. - The US government is after $175 million in assets, including 59 different bank accounts. Many of them Chinese. Two are from Citibank. - The US is looking for at least 14 Benzes, a Predator statue, two 108 inch TVs, a Seadoo, a 1957 Cadillac, a Maserati, and a Mini Cooper. -Kim owned a Rolls Royce Phantom with a license plate that read "GOD." Some of the tags on his other cars included: GUITLY, STONED, GOOD, CEO, MAFIA, and HACKER. Jalopnik.com = Yesterday the feds shut down MegaUpload. They've also seized an awful lot of the founders' possessions, including Kim "Dotcom" Schmitz's rather expensive car collection. Here's what towing away his millions of dollars of cars looks like. Over at Jalopnik, there's a full list of the cars that were seized, along with their rather hilarious number plates. But Elliott Kember was in New Zealand yesterday, so he traveled to Schmitz's mansion and took a bunch of pictures of the cars being towed away. He's kindly let us reproduce some of his images here. Amongst the cars towed away were a 2010 Maserati, a 2008 Rolls Royce, numerous Mercedes Benzes, and even a pink Cadillac. Tasteful Edited January 21, 2012 by Dante Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 21, 2012 Probably not. Also I love that everyone has jumped to Megaupload's defence... when... in all honesty we know exactly what Megaupload was really used for. Indeed I shall not lie. I did once use it to send pictures of a van to my brother. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 21, 2012 Well deserved to be shut down :p Definitely knew they were doing something wrong. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 21, 2012 Ha, wow, now that I see everything they owned and read more of what they were like, I find it more difficult to sympathise. I don't think they will get stuck with serious jailtime though. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 21, 2012 Indeed I shall not lie. I did once use it to send pictures of a van to my brother. Hehe, really?! MegaUpload... for pictures? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 21, 2012 (edited) Now onto the crazy stuff: Nzherald.co.nz & Nzherald.co.nz A neighbour of Dotcom's Coatesville home said she heard a helicopter circling the property about 6.30am. "I thought it was his private helicopter, which is parked up behind the trees, and I thought he was going out for breakfast, as he sometimes does. (WTF!) "I thought 'this is going on a bit long' and it was a bit annoying at that time of the morning and so I got up and realised it was a police helicopter. It was there for about an hour and then my friend texted me that a lot of cops had arrived.'' "It's a huge property and we were aware that there were a number of people there," Detective Inspector Wormald said. "Police arrived in two marked helicopters. Despite our staff clearly identifying themselves Mr Dotcom retreated into the house and activated a number of electronic locking mechanisms. "While police neutralized these locks he then further barricaded himself into a safe room within the house which officers had to cut their way into. "Once they gained entry into this room they found Mr Dotcom near a firearm which had the appearance of a shortened shotgun. "It was definitely not as simple as knocking at the front door." Edited January 21, 2012 by Dante Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 21, 2012 No offence... but not even a source on that link? Kinda sounds... (WTF!) < lolz. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 21, 2012 This is like the plot of a very silly comedy ... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 21, 2012 I find this entire subject pretty strange. Youtube do a fairly reasonable job of policing their content so I find it interesting that a company like MegaUpload should be any different. If there was another company that knowingly facilitated illegal activity then you would expect them to be held responsible surely? I expect this case to be like Al Capone, couldn't convict him of anything apart from tax fraud which was fine. The whole point was to just get him behind bars. I expect that the piracy stuff with MegaUpload won't stick but the money stuff will. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 21, 2012 UMG got this taken down a few times with copyright claims. They had literally no rights to any of it. Megaupload was about to launch a service for musicians where the musician got 90% of the profits. This is why I think it is now it's been taken down. The funniest thing of it all, Megauploads CEO was Swizz Beats. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
