Megaupload Users Plan To Sue FBI Over Lost Files

Megaupload was a file sharing service - not a long term storage service. Even if they had redundant backup they are under no obligation to release the files.. they could not short of putting the entire site back up and let the users download their uploaded files. A long term storage service would have backups in place for each paying user to be accessible in events such as this. The data may be tied up for a while to see if anything is illegal then if not, would be released to the user after the litigation is over.

I think the users will lose this one. They should have not used the service as a long term storage service and should not expect megaupload to act like one. They should have backed up their files before uploading.

Well I hope it gets lots of attention. I know why the media industry is up in arms. It's lawfully their future profits going down. But on a personal level I think they make enough money from performing/movie premiers that should totally pay for the movie/album to be produced and all parties payed accordingly. I mean, movies making hundreds of millions on a single flick where we are rehashing old 80s movies people have seen and changing small details and sometimes different endings to resell them to the younger population.

Isn't anybody in it anymore for the music/films? Le0t alone the fact their work is already a part of our history? Or does money have that much hold on people they can't give up the star power and just be people with slightly less money?

Intellectual property rights are a weird thing for me. Money has just dominated so much in society I root for all torrent sites, its information/entertainment, to say someone can't view or listen to it unless they pay you is funny if you think about it.

Movies were made before filesharing, pretty sure they could coexist if greed was taken out of the problem. Like they have been for years.

reply to post by cconn487


Communal property rights dont work, have never worked, and never will work. Its why the ideologies built on that standard fail.

You have people that put forth the effort to make something others want to see. If people like it they pay to see it. If they dont, the leave and get a refund. Success goes to those who work for it. It should never be trivialized in a way where its success should support those who are to lazy to do the hard work on their own to succeed.

Words to remember -

I Do Not Choose to Be a Common Man

The Honorable Dean Alfange was an American statesman born December 2, 1899, in Constantinople (now Istanbul). He was raised in upstate New York. He served in the U.S. Army during World War I and attended Hamilton College, graduating in the class of 1922.

It is my right to be uncommon—if I can.

I seek opportunity—not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me.

I want to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed.

I refuse to barter incentive for a dole. I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence; the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of utopia.

I will not trade freedom for beneficence nor my dignity for a handout. I will never cower before any master nor bend to any threat.

It is my heritage to stand erect, proud and unafraid; to think and act for myself, enjoy the benefit of my creations and to face the world boldly and say, “This I have done.”

By Dean Alfange

Originally posted by Xcathdra
reply to post by XPLodER

 

The US is enforcing US copyright / patents that were issued to US entities, and as such when the crime crosses a border it does become the business of the US government.

This is interesting and where people are getting mixed up, crosses in which way? The crime committed within the US and crossed into other countries, or committed in another country and brought into the US?

I'm not from the US so I'm not sure, but in my opinion, the actions were harsh.

The reason I say they were harsh is because more than likely (although not definitely) the prosecutors had a huge list of a majority of stolen content on the MegaUpload servers... The intellectual companies frequently ordered MegaUpload to remove them and they frequently did... anyway, besides the point. The prosecution should have this huge list of illegal stuff... why not take down the illegal stuff or sensor it in some way and give the legitimate users notice to remove their content within a fixed amount of time?

The whole point of this post is that users have content stored there that is legitimate, the government is clearly breaking the Data Protection Act.

Here's a few points in the DPA that are interesting to this case:

55 Unlawful obtaining etc. of personal data
(1) A person must not knowingly or recklessly, without the consent of the data controller—

(a) obtain or disclose personal data or the information contained in personal data, or

(b) procure the disclosure to another person of the information contained in personal data.

(2) Subsection (1) does not apply to a person who shows—

(a) that the obtaining, disclosing or procuring—

(i) was necessary for the purpose of preventing or detecting crime, or

(ii) was required or authorised by or under any enactment, by any rule of law or by the order of a court,

(b) that he acted in the reasonable belief that he had in law the right to obtain or disclose the data or information or, as the case may be, to procure the disclosure of the information to the other person,

(c) that he acted in the reasonable belief that he would have had the consent of the data controller if the data controller had known of the obtaining, disclosing or procuring and the circumstances of it, or

(d) that in the particular circumstances the obtaining, disclosing or procuring was justified as being in the public interest.

(3) A person who contravenes subsection (1) is guilty of an offence.

(4) A person who sells personal data is guilty of an offence if he has obtained the data in contravention of subsection (1).

(5) A person who offers to sell personal data is guilty of an offence if—

(a) he has obtained the data in contravention of subsection (1), or

(b) he subsequently obtains the data in contravention of that subsection.

(6) For the purposes of subsection (5), an advertisement indicating that personal data are or may be for sale is an offer to sell the data.

(7) Section 1(2) does not apply for the purposes of this section; and for the purposes of subsections (4) to (6), “personal data” includes information extracted from personal data.

(8 ) References in this section to personal data do not include references to personal data which by virtue of section 28 are exempt from this section.

whereismydata.wordpress.com...

reply to post by scottlpool2003


Because the offending business, mega-upload, and its servers are not located within the United States. They are in Hong Kong so the best we can do is coordinate with the local authorities.

In this case US Federal law was broken and per international treaty this is the redress.

Originally posted by kn0wh0w

Megaupload Users Plan To Sue FBI Over Lost Files

www.mtv.com

The drama surrounding file-sharing site Megaupload continued Friday (January 27) as users announced a plan to sue the FBI over files lost during the site's shutdown last week.

Last week, the federal government took action against Megaupload.com, arresting several members of the company on racketeering and copyright-infringement charges. A federal indictment alleged that the site, which allows users to transfer large files, has generated more than $175 million in criminal proceeds and costs copyright-holders more than $500 million in lost revenue from pirated movies, albums and other materi

(visit the link for the full news article)



Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Heres the full 72 page megaupload DOJ indictment
Indictment Charges Megaupload Site With Piracy

They cost them a lot more then 5 million but the real reason Megaupload was shutdown is because what they were about to offer artist and revolutionize the music industry. It was called megabox, Google it, no scratch that, Bing it

Originally posted by Zaanny
There were many legitimate paying subscribers that had uploaded their own files for backup purposes.

I would be ticked off also......

There was a lot of home brew stored on there also.

The thing that really irks me the most is...

How in the hell America has a right to seize anything outside of its boarders...

The company was registered in China, but it appears some, if not many of the server were actually in the US.

Then they cooperated with NZ authorities to extradite wotisname. dotcom.. stupid idiot, hes a tosser indeed but still..

the US did what they could, got what they wanted, and sent a shock into the ether.

They cannot touch a foreign entity without legal reason however.

Originally posted by JohnPhoenix
Megaupload was a file sharing service - not a long term storage service. Even if they had redundant backup they are under no obligation to release the files.. they could not short of putting the entire site back up and let the users download their uploaded files. A long term storage service would have backups in place for each paying user to be accessible in events such as this. The data may be tied up for a while to see if anything is illegal then if not, would be released to the user after the litigation is over.

I think the users will lose this one. They should have not used the service as a long term storage service and should not expect megaupload to act like one. They should have backed up their files before uploading.

File sharing/online storage. It's the same thing.

Alot of genuine files have been lost, a few of which were gems. It's not the sake of backing up but rather to share files or software you want other people to access where you do not have money or time to run your own hosting service.

For instance alot of homebrew communities have lost alot of indie games, programs, source code, tutorials and stuff that is real hard to come across. Mainly being that of the Sony PSP and nintendo DS. Alot of genuine files created by people are no longer accesible, as megaupload was a quick easy file hosting service to share software with others.

It's not a case of legal or not. What the oppressive regime (US) has done is crippled 100m birds with one stone. Where copyright infringement is a single "1" of the 100m.

It's unjustified that many legit, free, open source or unlicensed files have been "wiped away".

So let me get this straight. It's a huge offence in Thailand to insult the King. If I insult him from New Zealand or Australia and if Thailand asks, I can be extradited and charged and imprisoned in a foreign land?

Originally posted by Garfee
So let me get this straight. It's a huge offence in Thailand to insult the King. If I insult him from New Zealand or Australia and if Thailand asks, I can be extradited and charged and imprisoned in a foreign land?

edit on 29-1-2012 by Garfee because: Spelling. Duh.

No. If you went to Thailand and posted this, yes.

See?

The servers were in the US. That gives them jurisdiction.


Edit -

case proven

The king of Thailand is a fat ugly poopyfaced troll!

-- awaiting arrest.

Originally posted by kn0wh0w
reply to post by Zaanny

 

How in the hell America has a right to seize anything outside of its boarders...

exactly my thoughts mate!

i don't get it either.

Well, ACTA authorizes any government to act on supposed copyright infringement anywhere.
Obama signed it last November with an Executive Order.

If North Korea decides to join ACTA, their government can enforce taking down your web site or denying Internet access - for merely quoting an article or sharing a recipe, as long as THEY say it is copyrighted material. The authors do not have to agree. And the definition of "intellectual property" is so vague that if you name your cat Coca Cola and share a photo of her on Facebook, you can be reported.

I was thinking about how many people lost there files when this happened. I told my wife about this, first thing she said was , she was so glad she never uploaded here thesis she is working on to this site. she chose some type of business document site for back ups. Can imagine working for years on a thesis only to have the FBI take it form you in bust. I'm sure the users have a good case. Of course she does have other backups at home , I know sometimes students write at Star Bucks or something like that, then upload their files form there and forget to back up when they get home. Worse yet , is having your computer notebook stolen with all your doctorate work on it. the only back you have is on Megaupload, and now now the FBI has it. your out of luck and out of years of work if your never backed it up. I know some people whom never backed up there work.

The FBI really needs stop being the lap dog for Hollywood and get on with real business in this country; copyright infringement is not one of them.

ACTA would establish a new international legal framework that would create its "own governing body outside existing international institutions" such as - the World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) or the United Nations.

from the YouTube description of the video describing ACTA:
Video on ACTA

reply to post by mainidh


Ah ok it makes sense now. No idea why anyones servers are the the USA if this is what they knew could happen.

reply to post by Xcathdra


Wouldn't be the first time the US has interfered in other countries legislation for their own business buddies ....

tvnz.co.nz...

When your personal health files are put on a National Data Base, and someone sells that information....you, too, can sue the FBI.

You can sue the Attorney General's Office.

You can sue the CIA.

You can sue the White House.

You can sue city hall.

reply to post by InsideYourMind


I agree with you that it is screwed up that a lot of people lost a lot of info but I think that your blame is misplaced. Their losing it is not the fault of the U.S. or F.B.I. First of all the people themselves need to take some of the responsibility for storing their info online without a back-up either on their hard drive or another storage devise. Secondly, shouldn't it be Megaupload that they are pissed at? I mean, they are the ones who have allegedly broken the law here.

Let's go hypothetical for a moment. A married couple shares a common bank account. The wife is a hard working lady with a legitimate job, the husband is a drug dealer. The DEA swoops in and busts the husband, and in the process freezes all assets. The wife has lost all her hard earned, legal income.

Now by your argument it is the DEA's fault that she lost access to her money, and that is just flawed logic. If blame is going to be placed on someone for the lost files then the blame should be placed on the people who put them in the position to lose them. Also I reiterate that those who lost files due to not backing up are responsible as well, and just learned a lesson in why backing up important files is a good thing.

Originally posted by Scaledown
reply to post by Xcathdra

 

Wouldn't be the first time the US has interfered in other countries legislation for their own business buddies ....

tvnz.co.nz...

And since we are using international treaties that nations have signed onto, we arent interfering in the affairs of other countries...

nice try though.

Yes.I do own copyrights. Its just this. Copyrights are honored Internationally in all countries in the world participating in the recognized International Agreements for Copyright protection... 'cept a few like Russia...known for intense, wide abuses in bootlegging.

Under I.Agreements and Law, copyrights are equally protected and enforcable in all of those countries...BY those countries themselves, or WITH other countries..or even INSTEAD of certain originating and home countries. That is protection by International Copyright Law...and it is strictly enforced.
Me? I get royalties from the Uk (Britain, Ireland, Scotland, Wales)...Netherlands, (Belgium,Norway, Sweden Finland, Denmark, Holland)...the North Countries (Iceland, Greenland)...Asia and Central America, (all except China)...all of Europe (all but the Ukraine countries and Russia because they are corrupt)...and all the lands of Indonesia, and Africa, South America.

I can sue you in ALL of them, some of them, or originating from ANY of them. They all protect copyright by their
agreement or participation in enforcment.

But, I wont because I dont care. I have in the past...in other countries...from here in the US. And won.

But Im not interested in going after peanuts from you and then trying to collect what you dont have anyway.