U.S. shuts Megaupload.com, hackers retaliate

[hyphenate]

Source: Reuters

By Jeremy Pelofsky and Jim Finkle
Fri Jan 20, 2012 12:42am EST

(Reuters) - The U.S. government shut down the Megaupload.com content sharing website, charging its founders and several employees with massive copyright infringement, the latest skirmish in a high-profile battle against piracy of movies and music.

The Department of Justice announced the indictment and arrests of four company executives in New Zealand on Friday as debate over online piracy reaches fever pitch in Washington where lawmakers are trying to craft tougher legislation.

The movie and music industries want Congress to crack down on Internet piracy and content theft, but major Internet companies like Google and Facebook have complained that current drafts of the legislation would lead to censorship.

A Justice Department official said the timing of the arrests was not related to the battle in Congress.

New Zealand police on Friday raided a mansion in Auckland and arrested Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom, also known as Kim Schmitz, 37, a German national with New Zealand residency.



Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/20/us-usa-crime-piracy-idUSTRE80I24220120120

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This is going to get very interesting!

[PatrynXX]

1. interesting in the fact that the Feds broke the law shutting the site down

Had alot of stuff backed up there and it's a site one wouldn't make money from if they tried. So after tech companies saying this'll be the year of the cloud. It just had a cannonball thrown thru it. and it landed in Virginia. So much for the SOPA argument that it wouldn't affect workers in the USA. oops. I'd say just shutting the site down before being found guilty is grounds for the case to be thrown out. They didn't do this with Hotfiles. And with many musicians using the site, I'd say many might end up suing. maybe they stuck their studio albums up there they are working on. shutting the site down before asking questions is really stupid. It's partially how they lost alot of PR for the case against Manning. Starting to think Iran took the Govt over and we didn't know it. :(

MU isn't known for movies or music. It's more known for well porn.. Without porn you wouldn't have the VHS :P or the DVD or the Blu Ray or network speeds worth a darn. hence megaporn is also down. send mu links sometimes when a funny video on youtube is too big to send to people and some wanna save it but don't have the means. 30 mb is alot to send thru an email and yahoo will block me for it. can't send .exe's thru most email systems so up to MU it goes. It's a safe site, pro consumer and you don't make money off it. The feds have no case. Alas they claim it's a Hong Kong site but nobody there was arrested. The real Hong Kong sites though will be making money so thanks to the Feds.. Americans will continue to lose money to the chinese...

[hyphenate]

2. I have watched a lot of TV eps on MV

I wonder if that sister site was also taken down--I haven't had the opportunity to check yet.

I don't download a whole lot of music, movies, or things like that, and porn doesn't interest me. When I do download, it's usually apps, or obscure textbooks or other books, and for the bigger things, I go to torrents, not static sites. Those I reserve for books, because all of the sharing sites break up the data into multiple files, and it's just not worth the time.

There are definitely a lot of quite legal reasons to use a sharing site, and I think that's going to be impossible to sidestep in the trial. Many musicians came out about a month or two ago saying that they use those services themselves.

There are so many sharing sites that it would be impossible to shut them all down, and ludicrous to try.

Hotfiles fucked me over about a year ago, and charged me double for many months--it was like $90 that they overcharged, and they never even answered my emails, nevermind return my money, so they're dead to me. And Rapidshare changed its payment plan so drastically it became impossible to keep track.

And while some of the older sites have gone "legit" or otherwise changed their content or policies, there are new ones becoming fact every day.

I understand the whole situation from both perspectives, but I think the RIAA and MPAA and others like them are going around it the wrong way. There are well known musicians out there who work with their fans--even Paul McCartney gave away some songs for free, and asked his fans to buy others, and while there are some who won't buy, there are a lot more who are willing to pay with that kind of a deal. I've often found myself looking to download a song that I paid for in vinyl, CD or cassette form, and haven't got the setup to make my own MP3s.

All in all, I think it's a good thing to watch--Pirate Bay's founders got sentenced, but I still see it's working relatively fine.

[PatrynXX]

4. NIN understood it

Nine inch nails and trent reznor posted a couple of Pirate Bay only albums there. I'm sure many musical artists are wondering if their songs will make it back or did they loose a year working on an album. I'd assume Dropbox and youtube will be next. Wonder if the RIAA and MPAA is actually owned by the folks running Iran and Syria. can't close off communication any other way.

actions like this just make Anonymous look like the good guys. Nets been rather slow today and again I think they violated american law by shutting the site down before a trial which ironically was what SOPA and PIPA were supposed to allow. So why push PIPA if your already allowed to shut the site down??

[AndyTiedye]

6. The Grateful Dead Did Rather Well by Encouraging Tape Trading Back in the Day

The lively exchange of Grateful Dead tapes greatly increased their popularity,
in spite of a lack of interest by major record labels.

[Zorra]

3. The fun will really begin when Occupy and Anonymous

begin our coordinated actions.

"You mad, bro? We told you to expect us."

Ⓐccupy∞

∀☮

[PatrynXX]

5. whoops

#opmegaupload

[No Elephants]

7. Terra! Terra! Terra! Copyright infringement and the {badly-named} Patriot Act

Investigating copyright infringement

Adam McGaughey, the webmaster of a fan site for the television show Stargate SG-1, was charged with copyright infringement and computer fraud. During the investigation, the FBI invoked a provision of the {Patriot} Act to obtain financial records from the site's Internet Service Provider.<10> The USA PATRIOT Act amended the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act to include search and seizure of records from Internet Service Providers.

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