Indictment Charges Megaupload Site With Piracy

Something tells me that the Age of the Ad Hoc network connection(both stationed and mobile) is beginning.

Decentralized AES encrypted direct connections not only for file-sharing but for "private" communications as well.

The only problem with AES in general...it was developed by institutional lobbies with institutional funding so...

...Get in your cars people and take a ride to visit people in person!

Maybe if music artists actually put out anything worth buying, more people would buy their stuff. Has anyone turned on the radio lately? Hopefully not, it's nothing but garbage. I personally wouldn't buy 90% of the crap out there, let alone download it. If other people want to, I can't control it, nor can anyone else. Last time I checked these artists don't seem to be hurting for food on the table, if anything maybe they can't afford their drug habbits. Same goes for the RIAA execs, producers and everyone else in the industry that gets a profit from artist sales. Either way, they are far better off than I am or will ever be. Boo-F-ing-hoo if they "loose" a little money on imaginary sales...ie. you can't loose money on something you never sold to begin with. What if I buy all my CD's used? Guess what, the artist was already paid for it from the original buyer. The next thing will be a crack down on record resell shops.

How about this. Artist makes an album, and at the store it's 15 dollars. I only want the one or two songs that I heard on the radio, so I buy them from I tunes. I don't care about the rest...I previewed them on amazon. So now how much money did they loose? I buy 2 songs from an entire CD for 2 dollars. Did anyone think that is a factor to low CD or music sales?? This goes back to the artist putting out crap to begin with.

What about music that is no longer commercially available, or very hard to find. What about music on vinyl that was never released on other formats, and is not being reissued. What about bootleged material, or commercially unreleased material, rehearsals, outtakes, demos, rare performances, concerts, etc... Many artists have these things and people find them and release them. If the music industry had their way, they would never see the light of day with out some kind of profit. Many of this material is often low quality anyway, but for a fan it's a great way to see or hear an artist in a different light you would otherwise never know. Most of this is for die hard fans or collectors anyway...but again, should this stuff never see the light of day because of copyright?

Just a note, I was at a concert not too long ago and there were signs posted that said I was "ALLOWED" to photograph AND film the concert as long as it was for personal use and not being used for profit. I did film a portion and put it on youtube. Is there a chance it could be blocked or taken down for copyright infringement? The venue said I could film it, the artist must have given permission, I'm not making profit, yet I bet there is a good chance it could.

Just my 2 cents.

i was a fan of a musician/singer/songwriter back in the 80's, who had been in the commercial side of the business and decided to give his stuff away for free at his concerts. if people wanted to donate, they could. if they were too poor to buy the music, you could get it for free. and he didn't do this because he wasn't making money, in fact, he made this decision in middle of his career, when he was at the height of his popularity. (he died in an airplane crash with some of his kids, a couple years later). anyway, a friend of mine came with me to see him in concert. and when she expressed an interest in getting his music and saw it was free but donations were accepted, she donated many times more than what the album was worth, that she took home with her.

it's ludicrous to stop people from making this type of innovation because it works. it allows people to DECIDE and doesn't force them at gunpoint.

Originally posted by HarbingerOfDoom
Maybe if music artists actually put out anything worth buying, more people would buy their stuff. Has anyone turned on the radio lately?

If it's so crap, why download it? Someone out there sure wants to listen to it, either legally or illegally, since they sell so much.

Originally posted by HarbingerOfDoom
How about this. Artist makes an album, and at the store it's 15 dollars. I only want the one or two songs that I heard on the radio, so I buy them from I tunes. I don't care about the rest...I previewed them on amazon. So now how much money did they loose? I buy 2 songs from an entire CD for 2 dollars. Did anyone think that is a factor to low CD or music sales?? This goes back to the artist putting out crap to begin with.

This doesn't even make sense. You said everything on radio is crap, but you only want to buy the tracks you heard on the radio? And this is justification for illegally downloading it?

Originally posted by HarbingerOfDoom
What about music that is no longer commercially available, or very hard to find. What about music on vinyl that was never released on other formats, and is not being reissued.

Try harder to find it? Buy a turntable? Get in touch with smaller niche labels that specialise in re-issuing HTF music - this works and these labels welcome this kind of input if they know there is a market out there interested in a particular release.

Originally posted by HarbingerOfDoom
What about bootleged material, or commercially unreleased material, rehearsals, outtakes, demos, rare performances, concerts, etc...

This stuff isn't even legally commercially available to begin with. I understand the frustration, I once collected bootleg CD/vinyl myself, but this is a separate issue completely.

Originally posted by Thought Provoker
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?"

Wow man you just resume my own thinking on this matter with complete precision. Claps my friend.

Hurt me hurt you, it's that simple. I still have power as the consumer. I will just stop buying and I won't buy from the people who support you and the people who support them.

Originally posted by VelvetSplashSomeone out there sure wants to listen to it, either legally or illegally, since they sell so much.

People listen to the backstreet boys and vote for nazis.
You can't trust people.

oh my gosh, obama is a GREAT singer!


wow, i could listen to more of that !
i wonder if it's copyright infringement. hehe

Originally posted by SonicInfinity
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.

And maybe these people who lost their legitimate backup files this way could sue the government. It's a shame we've been taught to be such sheep here in the US.

Here is what the people, the average Joe, should do from now.

STOP going to the cinemas.

STOP buying copyrighted music, videogames, movies, and such.

SUPPORT the companies and projects that advocate for free sharing and access policies and strategies.

Just STOP and let them sink, they'll be forced to change their marketing policies in an instant.

Originally posted by JackHill
Here is what the people, the average Joe, should do from now.

STOP going to the cinemas.

STOP buying copyrighted music, videogames, movies, and such.

SUPPORT the companies and projects that advocate for free sharing and access policies and strategies.

Just STOP and let them sink, they'll be forced to change their marketing policies in an instant.

At the end of the day, supporting your locals artists and media groups is the best bet. Unfortunately, they all move on to be incorporated to a large label eventually.

The real money should be made in performing live though.

As far as movies go, it should be the independent filmmakers that people aim to support. Or big names that have gone against the grain.

James Cameron was rejected from Hollywood a number of times, his talent was too great however, for him to be dismissed. Eventually going on to put out his own investments to get his projects rolling.

Another one, would be Peter Jackson who took on District 9 after studio politics killed the Halo adaption and almost killed Neil Blomkamp's career before it started.

I have no problem paying for titles from those people. I'm not a huge fan of Hollywood, don't download movies, but certain ones will provoke me to go to the store and buy.

reply to post by boncho


THE SOPA BILL HAS JUST BEEN WITHDRAWN FROM CONGRESS!

www.msnbc.msn.com...

SAN ANTONIO — Lawmakers on Friday indefinitely postponed anti-piracy legislation that pits Hollywood against Silicon Valley, two days after major Internet companies staged an online protest by blacking out parts of prominent websites. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid postponed a showdown vote in his chamber on the Protect Intellectual Property Act, or PIPA for short, that had been scheduled for January 24. Lamar Smith, the Republican chairman of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, followed suit, saying his panel would delay action on similar legislation called the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, until there is wider agreement on the legislation. "I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy," Smith told Reuters in a telephone interview. "It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products," Smith said in a statement.

Seriously 20 years in prison?

Megaupload? Really..? This is so minor compared to the real guys..

Let me explain REAL piracy...

The below is completely educational.

I'm not exposing anything because this is common knowledge to most federal/international piracy "crime fighters" and to lots of SCENE folk.

Real piracy from the most basic ground level is an all done for fun. It is all a big competition to be the first and the fastest group (or affil/affiliate) to release within the various genres.

Groups/Affils are the actual name of the group of individuals that actually do the hard labor which I will explain further below....these groups usually consist of 5-25 people at a time such as IMAGiNE, CORE, HDChina, Rx, iLG, DVT, CENTROPY (old school) and others...
Hence you will see them listed in this fashion TitleofMovie.or.Software.2012.1080p.AC3-GroupNameHere

I will use a movie as an example....

Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol is released in the movies..

The first releases are usually pretty crappy looking, called CAMs (made with standard Camcorder)

One of the members of the group goes to a movie theatre at the time of release and uses a standard digital camcorder (sometimes with a tripod) and records the movie at the theater on the release date. The movie is then uploaded and sent to the ripper or done by whomever handles encoding once that has met all the "scene" rules as far as format (xvid/mkv) and split into .RAR files it is all uploaded to their servers for distribution...

Now after it is uploaded onto a several "top sites" it is then released to the "scene".
DEFINITION: Top Site: offshore very highly private (1-10gbit) dedicated server
FYI - Communication for all these top sites are on IRC using www.mirc.org or equivalent IRC Client

There are hundreds of thousands of servers throughout USA, Netherlands (popular), Russia, Japan, Korea that are run by these groups there are sites even on dedicated co-location self managed server websites like layeredtech.com softlayer.com

Within seconds of a movie, game, app's release -- it is distributed by random people/groups sometimes identified as "Traders" or "Racers" that have access to multiple private top sites and other sites and all these guys do is race to transfer files from site to site and when something is transferred in between these glFTPd/ioFTPd sites and the actions are all recorded from sites to the iRC channels like one big game..... The benefit of those traders usually have ratios like 1:5 so for every 1GB you transfer you get 5GB of download ability. However in many cases you have unlimited download ability on these sites.

This continues to go on from site to site to site and within a few hours in some cases days until it eventually filters onto NewsGroups/Usenet which is what lots of people currently use for downloading clean piracy 1080p movies and ps3 games... and then Torrents which are completely insecure and a pain.

Newsgroup in a nutshell..
You pay 2-8$ monthly at somewhere like newsguy newsdemon giganews etc... which gives you access, then use a site like binsearch.nl or better nzbmatrix to search for content and download using a client like AltBinz, the rest you figure out.
-- cleanest, safest & fastest way outside of the "scene".

I know this is poorly written and I just spat it all out but I hope this helps understand "The Scene" as this is where so called "piracy" comes from. Megaupload, Thepiratebay and all these other guys are just 3rd party guys that are on the forefront and have nothing to do with piracy except being a vehicle to circulate.

This is what I was trying to explain:

audioz.info...

Originally posted by Thought Provoker
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?"

Not totally true. Just speaking for myself, over the past ten years or so, my weekly stops to the local record store have gradually decreased. I went from buying CDs and DVDs on a weekly basis to buying none at all for at least a year now. It's not that i couldnt afford or want them. It was just so convenient and very easy to get it for free and save my money (or, should i say, spend it elsewhere). I estimate that i saved (they lost) a good 2 - 3 thousand dollars in lost sales by myself. So, your statement may be true in many cases, but definitely not in all cases.

Just as we learned YESTERDAY that the nuclear controversy in Iran was really about sales of Uranium fuel rods and a private nuclear corporation in the USA lobbying to kill the competition (literally), now perhaps we learn that MegaUpload was planning on giving artists MORE OF THE MONEY for their music -- we can't have that, can we?
LINK

I don't really know that much specifics about the MegaUpload situation (but I know which way the wind blows) -- it might be something to do with them not taking down specific copyrighted information and the justice department wanted to set an example.... but really, let's be a bit more modern here and say it how it works in the real world; RIAA lobbyists help key politicians get in office. Revolving door at perhaps the Justice department further sets priorities because when top regulators leave, they want a good job. Many of the lobbyists USED to work as regulators of the industry they now work for! Now, they go after the low hanging fruit -- hoping to set precedent with the worst of the worst.

Beyond YouTube and a few companies that have spent MILLIONS creating programs to scan for copyright violations (they actually scan audios and videos for SIMILARITY), most any website that has user generated content CANNOT screen what the user puts up. It makes the business model impossible.

Other businesses that wish to IMPOSE their will, quietly support these actions and wait. There are lot of powerful groups like the Pentagon who don't really like this whole "free speech thing" on the internet, and would prefer people go back to turning on the TV and forgetting history, unless of course it's the watered down stuff they learned in college. It's perfectly safe to the status quo as long as everything you know is wrong.

So it's not just the music and entertainment industry that is the REAL coalition behind these moves. If they can end "network neutrality" the big single pipe ISP providers win. If they can take down sites proactively, rather than force copyright holders to prove they've been infringed, they can selectively enforce punishment (since there will be a million-site backlog in 6 months of this law passing), they can get rid of the "nuisance sites".

The ONLY thing that allowed many Americans to know we were lied into the Iraq war was the rise of the internet. Otherwise it probably would have been like the Vietnam war. The warriors of the Status Quo are a bit more savvy about this new marketing beast they unleashed that bit the hand that fed it, and are ready to replace it with the ILLUSION of information freedom. Wikileaks of course, will get chumped by a copyrighted work instead of a document dump of the CIA and will be taken down without a court order -- just see what happens if SOPA ever passes.

The music industry uses the excuse of the artist, the church uses the excuse of the soul, the military uses the excuse of the terrorist, the police state uses the excuse of the war on drugs. Nothing seems to cement the purgatory of a problem better than the trading our liberty for security and letting those who profit from that run the show.

I'm for less and more government -- less corrupt and more thoughtful. SOPA and these types of enforcement, are positive feedback loops where the Benefactor has an incentive to push for more enforcement. Actually, the entertainment industry should have to pay MORE taxes to cover the MORE infringement because that means more work for Government they didn't pay for.

>> if we could carry this them a bit further, BP and GM would have to pay for wars, rather than their workers, and the Coal industry would have to pay a percentage of everyone who comes in with a Lung disease to a hospital. Government only works if you have a negative feedback loop; If you DON'T want profit and you want everyone to take advantage; it should be government. If you want to reduce access - make it pay as you go.

The worst is to have freeloading power groups getting more money and power because they got a hammer thanks to Congress.

These guys were doing it!

arstechnica.com...

reply to post by maestromason


So, what, because they had some fun license plates and spent their money earnt living in luxury, it makes them guilty of net piracy? The article is aimed more at character assassination, insinuations and smearing it seems to me, than anything.

reply to post by David_Reale


I just said that they were doing it. I did not pass judgment on how they were doing it or with what. These guys were living like CEO's and well-paid employees of any successful firm is suppose to be.

Hell, I did not get to be successful by caring about what people think.

Success in life trumps public opinion all day!

reply to post by maestromason


Sorry, man. I didn't mean the previous post to be directed at you, more like the author of the article.

Poor Megaupload. A good friend and entertainment through many years. 72 minutes of unadulterated pleasure. Who do we think the next big victim will be?