FBI shut down Megaupload.com; founder arrested in New Zealand

Bad^Hat

Bad^Hat

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One of the world’s largest file-sharing sites was shut down Thursday, and its founder and several company executives were charged with violating piracy laws, federal prosecutors said.

An indictment accuses Megaupload.com of costing copyright holders more than $500 million in lost revenue from pirated films and other content. The indictment was unsealed one day after websites including Wikipedia and Craigslist shut down in protest of two congressional proposals intended to thwart online piracy.

The Justice Department said in a statement said that Kim Dotcom, formerly known as Kim Schmitz, and three others were arrested Thursday in New Zealand at the request of U.S. officials. Two other defendants are at large.

Before the site was taken down, it posted a statement saying allegations that it facilitated massive breaches of copyright laws were “grotesquely overblown.”

“The fact is that the vast majority of Mega’s Internet traffic is legitimate, and we are here to stay. If the content industry would like to take advantage of our popularity, we are happy to enter into a dialogue. We have some good ideas. Please get in touch,” the statement said.

The indictment was returned in the Eastern District of Virginia, which claimed jurisdiction in part because some of the alleged pirated materials were hosted on leased servers in Ashburn, Va.

Dotcom, a resident of both Hong Kong and New Zealand, and a dual citizen of Finland and Germany, made more than $42 million from the conspiracy in 2010 alone, according to the indictment.
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****. I don't even... ****.

http://techland.time.com/2012/01/19/feds-shut-down-megaupload-com-file-sharing-website/
 
"...... Wait, did SOPA end up passing?"
"I dont think so."
"God damnit. Put him back on the plane."
 
When I got to send files across the globe, I use Megaupload.


Who would have thought though... going after somebody at the very top(even if it's not accurate)? Must not be the RIAA or MPAA involved. They love going after the base of the pyramid.
 
Anonymous have been using this as a platform for DDOS attacking sites in protest of SOPA & PIPA.

They've already managed to feck up both the Warner and Universal Music Group websites, FBI.gov, BGI.com, Department of Justice Website and the RIAA and MPAA sites to name a few...

The Internet is pissed, it would seem.
 
"Make sure your brand is protected...Make sure there are no incursions. Be litigious. Sue everybody. Take their homes, their cars. Don't let anybody cross that line."


This is the problematic mentality that needs to fade away from existence. The idea of punishing everybody, which turns out to especially be the littlest people and even people who don't actually do anything wrong. As long as copyright activists act in such a way I'll never support them. Ever.
 
Shit I don't even want to promote the sites I use otherwise. ****ing crosshairs.
 
It was as though billions of MU links cried out and were suddenly silenced.
 
Well, goodbye icefilms. It was nice to know you. I guess it's time to finally pay for cable television (even though I only care to watch about 2% of it).
 
sixteenth said:
Well, goodbye icefilms. It was nice to know you. I guess it's time to finally pay for cable television (even though I only care to watch about 2% of it).
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Hell yeah, that's how we stop the Entertainment Industries crap!!
 
I can't wait for society to move past artificial scarcity.
 
I really think copyright infringement should be a civil offense, not a criminal one. I don't think the FBI should be arresting people over this (though I'm perfectly happy for copyright holders to try to sue them into the ground).
 
I've heard that Megaupload was actually pretty good at honoring DMCA takedown requests, too, promptly and invariably; which makes this all the more unsettling. I've also heard that the rationale behind the US having jurisdiction here is that Megaupload happened to have a server or two on US soil (most of them weren't).
 
OMG GUISE LOOK WAT SOPA DID NOW!!! WE NEED TO STOP IT!

I'm glad we've got all these heroic companies bravely protesting this very-likely-to-pass bill!
 
All the Megaupload staff who have been arrested were not American and were not arrested in America. **** you, US law. You don't run the world.
 
V-Man339 said:
All the Megaupload staff who have been arrested were not American and were not arrested in America. **** you, US law. You don't run the world.
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That's exactly why I find this news disturbing.
 
Im not very well versed in all this, or following it at all really. What I'd like to know is just how likely is it that theyll pass this bill?
 
Welp, I have much less sympathy for them after reading that, assuming the emails/chat logs are legit. Will be interesting to see how the court case pans out, but given how these things usually go we probably won't get any resolution until we're in our 40s.

In any case, I may have reacted poorly to this at first on account of the timing. In reality there's not much chance that had anything to do with it.

Edeslash said:
OMG GUISE LOOK WAT SOPA DID NOW!!! WE NEED TO STOP IT!

I'm glad we've got all these heroic companies bravely protesting this very-likely-to-pass bill!
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I have no idea what you're trying to say, but as I mentioned in another thread, SOPA is dead. For now.
 
[Dragoon] said:
I've heard that Megaupload was actually pretty good at honoring DMCA takedown requests, too, promptly and invariably; which makes this all the more unsettling. I've also heard that the rationale behind the US having jurisdiction here is that Megaupload happened to have a server or two on US soil (most of them weren't).
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Pretty much ALL of them are good at honoring DMCA takedown requests. But they all still get shut down. Well, not necessarily shut down but... reamed in the ass.
 
Seriously scary. Do they really now have access to all that user info and IPs?

 
kazsymonds said:
Interesting post on Reddit about how Megaupload never removed content, merely removed the URLs...

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/oouwm/can_someone_explain_why_the_megaupload_takedown/
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What makes him know or even think that it wasn't the content removed, only the URL? Is it because there are often multiple files with the same name? It's not as if they dump everything into a single folder. There can exist multiple files with the same filename because many different people upload.
 
399727_313854678650406_123929004309642_857639_2064631279_n.jpg

this is so true
 
Ze Jews...zey have won lol.
I cancelled my Fileserve account after all the Uploaders abandoned it last night.
Should make for a pretty interesting few months I wonder how much the Internet will change.
 
What annoys me is that this new law can target, I believe, Facebook and Twitter etc, but more importantly (and what we ACTUALLY care about), is the fact that they COULD take down Youtube.

Take down Youtube. Right. That's just...something you dont do. You dont need a law, it's an unwritten rule. There are some sites you dont mess with.
 
Maybe that's what we need for people to seriously kick these f***ers in the c***.
 
Raziaar said:
What makes him know or even think that it wasn't the content removed, only the URL? Is it because there are often multiple files with the same name? It's not as if they dump everything into a single folder. There can exist multiple files with the same filename because many different people upload.
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His information is from the indictment.

Redditor said:
I mean, I've now spent some time reading the indictment, and if we take the Grand Jury (which would include probable cause and due process) and FBI at good faith for the time being, it seems to me like the members of the "mega conspiracy" have done nothing but be criminally stupid, while earning tons of money on intentionally and willfully infringing on copyrights.
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I'm not trying to defend megaupload, those are pretty hard things to fabricate, are they not? If so, they deserve all they got for blatant stupidity.
 
Members of ******,

In the days since the seizure of Megaupload, hundreds of sites, out of fear and panic, have taken action to hamper the progress of internet communities. Filesonic has disabled all sharing. Uploader.to blocked Americans from accessing its site. Fileserve has terminated hundreds of accounts. Why did they do all this? They are cowards without a backbone. Every one of them. These are the same people that murdered the free sharing spirit of warez by bringing money into the picture. They have panicked in fear! And you see, they are dropping like dominos.

The ship of freedom will continue to sail with or without these cowards; the sailing may be difficult, the storms punishing, the tides violent, but we will never, we will never perish!

We already saw action being taken: Anonymous has downed the website of FBI, of MPAA, of RIAA. We are not alone; you are not alone. We have censored Filesonic, Uploader.to, and Filserve, these money grubbing cowardly fools do not deserve traffic from us.

If you can write lend us your words. If you have money, donate. If you are an American lash out at your representative in congress and senate. We all can do something! We cannot sit. We cannot wait. We cannot hope. We have to act!

****** Staff
 
ZT said:
Seriously scary. Do they really now have access to all that user info and IPs?

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That would be worrying, but is there any source reporting this other than a deranged man on youtube? Dude said everything he had to say in less than 2 minutes. By the 5 minute mark, he'd already repeated himself two times over. Didn't bother watching the rest.
 
dfc05 said:
That would be worrying, but is there any source reporting this other than a deranged man on youtube? Dude said everything he had to say in less than 2 minutes. By the 5 minute mark, he'd already repeated himself two times over. Didn't bother watching the rest.
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That guy spreads alot of misinformation. The case he cited about he poor native American women was her own undoing.She refused to pony up a fine that was under $1000 and tried to counter the RIAA she lost.... She didn't know the difference between a fight can win and one you cannot.I saw another one of his vids months ago...it's just alota misinformation trying to scare people.
The DOJ will not not go after people that downloaded stuff it's would cost too much money and time.
oh and he's a flamboyant ***.
 
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