U.S Government shut downs Megaupload website after SOPA protest.

[ShcShc11 0]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jan/19/us-government-megaupload-piracy-indictment

First Pokerstar. Now Megaupload.

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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".

News of the indictment – being framed as one of the biggest copyright cases in US history – came a day after major internet firms held a 24-hour protest over proposed anti-piracy laws.

According to a Department of Justice release, seven people associated with Megaupload were indicted by a federal grand jury earlier this month over the charges.

[peanut_gallery 0]

Bastards! I was wondering why it was down

[Coreece 190]

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First Pokerstar. Now Megaupload.

Sucks...they cost me an extra $1200 extra per month...

I will make it up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bESGLojNYSo&ob=av2n&fb_source=message

Your secrets are the true reflection of who you really are...

[riddler 0]

I'm against regulation of the Internet. However, this one needed to be shut down. A handful of Germans move to New Zealand to hopefully avoid prosecution by western authorities. Their business model is to sell ads on a site that is dedicated to stealing copyrighted material. With part of their profits, they buy mansions, exotic cars (a Rolls-Royce Phantom, and 20 other luxury autos), build a safe-room inside their houses for when the police eventually show up (they had to cut Kim D.C. out of it), private jets, etc, etc.

The dude bragged that he was smarter than Bill Gates, then duped stock investors and fled to Thailand, was captured and jailed. All this BEFORE before starting this new "venture" called Mega-upload.

Seriously, if the media reports are even half true, this is a criminal POS enterprise, unlike a lot of the people and businesses that are being unfairly prosecuted by the government and big-name corporations.

Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

[Nataly 38]

Whilst I agree that they broke the law, I also think that millions of people helped them do it... And yes it's theoretically wrong to profit from crime, that money got thrown around back into the economy so there was little incentive to shut them down for a very long time... Let's face it: they weren't exactly a big secret so even the authorities/gov didn't act (until now) - why??

To villify the people who ran the operation is to deny everyone's participation in the crime. Just like the bankers who supposedly are the root of all evil... Those bankers gave loans to loads of people who lied about their income and credit-worthiness... But it's so much easier to point the finger at just a handfull of people...


ETA: what irks me in all of this is lack of access... Why haven't the networks and studios evolved with the times and utilised the internet to give people the unlimited access they want?? They could adapt to market demands and utilise a similar business model to megavideo (paid advertising) and offer "free" streaming whilst reaping the profits they are entitled to. Why haven't they clued into a very basic supply/demand situation and/or adapted the rules accordingly???

"There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse."
- Chris Hadfield
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