Indictment Charges Megaupload Site With Piracy

Originally posted by Fractured.Facade
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.

In this case, we are talking about a service provider that lets other host material through them. They even had t&c to address the issue.

"Activity that violates our terms of service or our acceptable use policy is not tolerated, and we go to great lengths to swiftly process legitimate DMCA takedown notices".[12]

This would be similar to a warehouse owner being charged by what a client stores in their warehouse.

reply to post by boncho


Ah, so they facilitated criminal activity, I suppose that too is okay eh?

So, the copyright mob have shown their hand. I have a feeling they've made a big mistake today. We all know this was in response to the protests towards PIPA/SOPA. So, in essence, this is an act of war from the copyright mob's side. And that means anything and everything is fair game, from both sides, from here on out. Continuing on that track, we all know that the copyright mob can't win because they are seriously outnumbered, not to mention outsmarted. So the only question remains, how will we the people make our first retaliatory attack on them?

Somehow, I don't think a few websites closing down for a day in protest is going to cut it. I'm thinking full-scale boycott, hacker attacks and maybe some WikiLeaks/Anonymous inside jobs will be the result of the mob's actions here. In the end, they're going to become painfully aware that all those hundreds of millions of dollars they spent...yeah, it didn't pay off, and they're never going to get them back.

Originally posted by Fractured.Facade
reply to post by boncho

 

Ah, so they facilitated criminal activity, I suppose that too is okay eh?

It was not their official policy to facilitate criminal activity (In fact, it was against their t&c and they addressed orders to remove materials). Under your logic, American Airlines could be held responsible for 9/11.

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.

Thats statistically untrue. the music, gaming, and movie industry has seen a decline in their sales through the years as piracy increases.

Lets not pretend its a non issue I think is the first step..the next step is to all come together and realize the model changed and there is no real way to go back to pre-net days...if its information, it is out there and will be shared..now the trick is to find a new and working model that is acceptable and profitable for all..

That is a bit tricky, will take some out of the box thinking, but necessity is the mother of invention

Originally posted by TheOneElectric
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.

Ive always loved the idea of free file sharing because it does indeed put the music industry back in the live performance business. We've lost any real talent in our music industry anymore. Its all glitz, glamor, clips of a bona fide musicians previous works set to a drum track and studio magic. Sure, modern day recordings are appealing to angst ridden, style conscience high schoolers, but it is devoid of any mature talent or technicality.
However if you look to major live acts today, certain ones keep selling out clubs and amphitheaters because they can actually evoke an emotion with an instrument in a live, "intimate" setting.
Die recording industry, die!! Bring back the much preferred live act through a free file sharing stance on everything!

Also, the best and most talented acts out there are bands who have fans who openly trade and download free live performances (the bands encourage it).

What are people's views on Movie Night at home with a group of friends? What are people's views on loaning a DVD to a friend to see a movie? Is this still withholding legitimate revenue? I'm willing to bet that someone is going to say that since it was their bought & paid for property, sharing it doesn't matter.

I don't see the difference between that & uploading it to share on MegaUpload/Video. Sharing is sharing. How many people shared with is the threshold that constitutes piracy?

I heard on a radio that as long as the site is simply hosting the material for people to upload and download stuff, and does nothing to advertise, boost, or otherwise encourage users, then it's fair game.

I don't know what Megaupload did to get busted, but it must have been something either dumb or out of line. I know a few movie sites that are still up and running, and they have LOADS of videos. I'm just sad Megavideo went with it...it had a time limit, but honestly the time limit had loop holes, and the streaming was brilliant.

Hopefully, it'll stop with Megaupload. If not...cross your fingers.

reply to post by Starchild23


It may have developed a target on its head recently when it made promo videos with some of the biggest money making celebs out there.

Swizz Beatz has a number of different hustles: record producer, rapper and shoe designer. It turns out the Bronx-born hitmaker is also the CEO of the file-sharing site Megaupload, which at the moment has drawn a bit of fire from Universal Music Group, the record company where Swizz was once signed.

In an effort to raise the company's profile, Megaupload has been releasing video testimonials from big-name artists like Kanye West, Diddy, will.i.am and Swizz's wife, Alicia Keys, along with celebrities like Kim Kardashian. In the promotional videos, the big-name stars express their support of the site, which allows users to send large media files — sometimes pirated materials such as entire movies and albums.

8

This is garbage.
Where are the laws that stop corporations from planting web bugs and spyware in our computers? You know, the ones that track our activity and invade our privacy? (not to mention, slow down our computers...). Who's protecting US?

It's funny our whole life most of us are taught to share, because it's the right thing to do. Just don't share anything that can take money away from someone else. What a double standard. Now lets all go apply this mentality to everything in life, stop giving handouts to the needy, stop supporting the local animal shelters, make people pay for your time no longer "donate" it. If these greedy bastards only realised that if they would lower the cost of the media more people would be inclined to support them. I myself have a few bands that fall into some of the other posters feelings. They are awesome live and are true people people, and I gladly support by attending concerts and purchasing shirts and cd's. I think the problem for most is the gimme gimme bands and shall I say general media whores who are just money grubbing pigs. I really hope everyone can come up with some kind of a solution to solve this mess equally for both sides.

reply to post by MrUncreated


You know what they say, man. Money talks, bull**** walks. And the colpyright mob's got more dough than we do.

Originally posted by Fractured.Facade
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.

what if the software to enable theft was given out by the copywrite holders?
what if the down load torrents were a tool to MAKE people much more likley to offend?

why are the orinators of the tools not being blamed for the acual problem

your reactionary position shows a lack of understanding as to how we got here in the first place.

there are already enforcement channels to use the real question is,
was the software designed to allow mass piracy and did the developers promote the use of pircey and then profit of the distrabution of the software.

the SAME companies then prosicute anyone who uses the software THEY supplied for copywrite material.

its called a confidence scam.

xploder

NVM

~derp~

reply to post by XPLodER


Good post. Covered in this thread.

What has happened, is a new industry has been born. And will continue to grow.

Now you have corporations making and selling media, distributing programs to steal the media, and law enforcement can go after the people who use those programs, increasing numbers for the corporations as well as law enforcement and the judicial system.

It's an entire new industry that will have a major economic impact, especially if it gets larger.

Originally posted by Invariance
I think Megavideo is gone too.. the site times out, won't load

What next?

I can think of several offhand for streaming that I'm worried about. Since MV was for streaming, I'm wondering if this isn't just the start of a massive take-down for downloading & streaming alike.

reply to post by SaturnFX

I find it amusing to see how many people try to justify copyright stealing and piracy by attaching the label 'free speech' to it

But then copyright law was never created to protect the authors, just the publishing companies rights

Originally posted by SaturnFX
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.

Pawn shops don't break into peoples houses, but if they sell stolen goods they are still part of the problem.

Guy has the biggest mansion in the country, so I'd say there must be some profit in it.

it really does make you think where the line is drawn and if it's different in the real world and online.

For example, what would happen if a site opened up, and if a legitimate song bought from a legit site was 0.99c , you got 99 people to all pay 1c, they would be combining to buy the product as 1 group, and with equal ownership they would all be entitled to share it.

i like the poster talking about watching a dvd with friends, or if you have your mates round to watch a match. Online, it's like everyone has to have their own copy or none at all, in the real world it would be like saying it's illegal to have your mates round to watch a match because they should all pay for the sport subscription individually, i swapped stuff at school all the time and leant friends things, so by the online definition im sure every single one of us should be arrested

there are just no definite boundary lines drawn

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.

You wrote what I was thinking.

What do we need sopa and pipa for? I think this case should demonstrate they aren't needed, and the existing laws should be adequate to fight piracy if the due process of law is followed, as it should be.

Trying to shortcut due process with SOPA should be a crime itself, and I'm hoping they don't bring it back when nobody is looking, but I'm afraid you might be right, that they might at least try that, so we need to be vigilant, to prevent that.