Indictment Charges Megaupload Site With Piracy

Indictment Charges Megaupload Site With Piracy

www.nytimes.com

McLEAN, Va. — Federal prosecutors in Virginia say they have shut down one of the world’s largest Internet file-sharing sites, Megaupload.com, and charged its founder and others with violating piracy laws.

An indictment accuses the company of costing copyright holders more than $500 million in lost revenue from pirated films and other content. The indictment was unsealed Thursday, one day after Web sites shut down in protest of two Congressional proposals intended to thwart the online piracy of copyrighted movies and TV programs.

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This is pretty huge in the battle for the internet. News is just breaking, Megaupload has been shutdown and the owner arrested.

I will add more in a second after I can read a couple more articles.

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.

Read more: www.3news.co.nz...

www.nytimes.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I use megaupload a lot of times along with filesonic, rapidshare, uploading, mihd, and a ton of others. One goes down, 5 will take its place. This pisses me off, megaupload was one of the better service providers..

So 24 hours after the SOPA blackout which was staged by a number of corporations and websites against the Bill, the Feds have taken down one of the largest file sharing hosting services out there.

Fox News says the FBI stated this is largest criminal indictment for piracy ever brought forward in the US.

The individuals in the criminal enterprise -- a worldwide ring led by Australians Kim Dotcom, aka Kim Schmitz, and Kim Tim Jim Vestor -- each face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on racketeering charges, five years for conspiracy to commit copyright infringement, 20 years on money laundering charges and five years on related charges. Read more: www.foxnews.com...

This is pretty heavy. Facing 20 years in prison on the cusp of new legislation on piracy. Given that the case is so political, the people involved are going to be in for a major fight.

Oh, hell no.

This is a direct response to the SOPA and PIPA failure. They'll use existing laws to piece together what they wanted to do in one move. This was retaliation, in my opinion. I'm sure this was planned for a while, years maybe, but this was executed today as a response to the public. Coporations control the government, and corporations control the people.

I know that we aren't entitled to free stuff, but I have to say, nothing is going to stop piracy. The entertainment industry is going to have to adapt. Musicians won't make millions just by making a decent album anymore. They are going to have to go out there, fill those stadium seats, sell the merchandise, meet the people, and be a star.

Things are going to get rough int he battle in the next few months, this, I am sure of.

This is all the more warranting for a satellite based ISP without any country and laws who answers to no one.

PopSci put out the current magazine where they talk about laptop sized box satellites.

It's a shame they didn't give even a day of notice for people to backup their files. Luckily, I backup my really important files in more than one place, but I can already imagine those who have trusted megaupload for years will be devastated.

reply to post by TheOneElectric

This is a direct response to the SOPA and PIPA failure. They'll use existing laws to piece together what they wanted to do in one move. This was retaliation, in my opinion. I'm sure this was planned for a while, years maybe, but this was executed today as a response to the public. Coporations control the government, and corporations control the people.

I think there is more to it than just that. Look at this:

Kasseem Dean, better known by his platinum hip hop production alias Swizz Beatz has revealed himself to be the CEO of the frequently used file sharing site MegaUpload.com.

In a time where the SOPA and PIPA issues are prominent, the existence of a major label artist CEO running a file sharing website really puts things in perspective.

*

Another article on it.

reply to post by boncho


That's hilarious.

On a more somber note:

That's megaupload, megavideo, and megaporn all gone.

Originally posted by TheOneElectric
This is a direct response to the SOPA and PIPA failure. They'll use existing laws to piece together what they wanted to do in one move. This was retaliation, in my opinion. I'm sure this was planned for a while, years maybe, but this was executed today as a response to the public.

hopefully this is not the first of many to come... pretty scary incident for the freedom of the internet

this action shows pipa and sopa are not necacery,
the feds already have ample powers to act and achive any real objective.
sopa and pipa will be bought back when no body is wactching.

REMEMBER the feds have HAD these powers the hole time they pressed for more power and acted defencless.

sopa and pipa is NOT required to bring people before the courts.

xploder

Originally posted by XPLodER
this action shows pipa and sopa are not necacery,
the feds already have ample powers to act and achive any real objective.
sopa and pipa will be bought back when no body is wactching.

REMEMBER the feds have HAD these powers the hole time they pressed for more power and acted defencless.

sopa and pipa is NOT required to bring people before the courts.

xploder

Exactly, they just proved that the reason given for the bills was not really what they are meant for. This is getting heavy.

reply to post by XPLodER


But it's required to bring more people in front of the courts?

I'm really starting to wonder what the outcome of SOPA is given that they are making such massive takedowns as it is. For the people involved in this site, they are facing some pretty serious consequences.

The real scary part, is that if SOPA is used to go after common people who aren't running large scale file hosting sites, will it be used to put away non-violent offenders to build the prison population, as has happened with other criminal legislation?

I think the last one is one of the most important questions that could be asked about the issue.

I do believe I paled considerably reading this. I've used Megavideo several times for catching episodes of shows I missed live airings of, how it that any different than using a DVR?
This highlights that PIPA/SOPA is not necessary for combating pirating, because oh look! We're already policing the internet, inside & outside of our borders. I hope New Zealand puts up a fierce fight, they have no reason to roll on their backs for the US.

WHOOT, they took the Kimble down (again)...sad, megaupload was the 2nd best platform, glad Rapidshare is still available....

but hey, if you roll big that can happen:

On January 19, Schmitz was arrested by New Zealand police in Auckland at his mansion in Coatesville. Believed to be valued at around $30 million and leased by Schmitz, the house is thought to be the most expensive in New Zealand.

en.wikipedia.org...

I love the 500 million in lost revenue remark, under what assumption do they think , if it is the case that people dwnl'd software , music , vids etc... the individuals would have purchased said media instead ? most likely they wouldn't have. If they were trying to get a share of the revenue generated minus business costs from the alleged material dwnl'd then yeah maybe I'd take that seriously. But 500 million in lost revenue that's a joke.
For a very long time people have made copy's of things for friends etc.. nough warning imho.
Just because the worlds opened up thanks to the internet company's who've become incapable of competing because of their own predefined way of thinking and inappropriate or complete lack of preparation and restructuring of their business model to enable them to operate in the NOW. Combined with there own greed pocketing as much revenue as possible and then they think they can throw a hissy fit in a court of law based on a artificial sense of entitlement and prosecute a file hosting site for 5oo million in loses ????? WTF there like an annoying child standing in a corner screaming coz there lolly fell in the dirt and they want a new one.
Wake up you dropped it !!
If i were judge i wouldn't even allow it , it's there own fault.
I know for a fact Megaupload Remove infringing material as well so incapable brats is all that say's.

The copyright warnings have been displayed for a very long time... Ignorance is no excuse for the law.

If there is a product for sale, at a price, and people are taking that product for FREE, that is STEALING.

No matter how you justify it, or defend it, stealing is wrong, and inside of every human is constant awareness of this.

You know right and wrong!

Just because it is available in digital form, doesn't make stealing it okay.... Society is lost when people have no respect for property and rights to it.

The recording/movie/book/whatever industries know the following:

1: People pirate things because they either can't, or don't want to, buy them.
2: If all piracy worldwide were stopped, those people still wouldn't buy them.
3: Therefore, piracy does not cost those industries one damn cent.

So since they have to know all that, why do they still spend millions of dollars "fighting piracy?" Are we supposed to believe that politicians are so ignorant that they don't realize piracy doesn't cost anyone anything?

And leave it to the NY Times to describe Megaupload as "an international criminal enterprise." They know all of the above, too. There's no way Megaupload cost anyone even $5, let alone $500 million, and those jackasses know it. They all know it... but they'll pretend it isn't true until the end of time. Is this what Orwell meant by "Newspeak?"

wait...so megaupload itself was giving away copywrited stuff, or simply facilitated the use of their service for users that they chose to use incorrectly?

this is like blaming roads for a bank being robbed because a road was used during the bank robbery.

All I can say is that I'm sure glad I listen to most my music on YouTube or download free podcasts which are legal. I honestly don't care about the principal of it, I used to rip music off for years (go ahead flame me) but Stephen Harper would have no problems extraditing a Canadian to the U.S. over illegal downloads so this is a risk I'm just not going to take.

Canadian internet providers are as draconian as it gets, that's not including all the new crime laws coming into effect. Friends, it was fun while it lasted, internet freedom is pretty much gone now.