Megaupload

**judedeath** · 01-19-12, 04:31 PM

The federal authorities on Thursday announced that they had charged seven people connected to the Web site Megaupload, including its founder, with running an international criminal enterprise centered on copyright infringement on the Internet.According to a grand jury indictment, Megaupload — one of the most popular “locker” services on the Internet, which lets users anonymously transfer large files — generated $175 million in income for its operators through subscription fees and advertising, while causing $500 million in damages to copyright holders.Four of the seven people, including the site’s founder Kim Dotcom, born Kim Schmitz, have been arrested in New Zealand, the Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Thursday; the three others remain at large. The seven — who a grand jury indictment calls part of a “Mega Conspiracy” — have been charged with five counts of copyright infringement and conspiracy, the authorities said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/technology/indictment-charges-megaupload-site-with-piracy.html?_r=1

Feds Kill Megaupload (Updated)

I'm sure it's a total unrelated that this happened the day after the big SOPA protests.

**SmokenScion** · 01-19-12, 05:02 PM

hmmm.

**Guyver** · 01-19-12, 05:43 PM

So it begins.

**Red_Lizard2** · 01-21-12, 02:19 AM

Well they be willing to explain how they are sure it caused $500 million in damages to copyright holders? Unless they are tracking every person who downloaded something illegal on the site, and cross checking it with all their purchases they made since then, how can be so sure that it caused such a loss? Did it lose some, sure. But you can't say every person that downloaded it, never went out later and bought the product (just saying).

All this will do, is cause sites (particulary those which have copy infringments, and possibly others) to move all their servers overseas. I'm sure that is good economically right? Like those gambling sites we ran off a few months ago, that are still ticking just without servers in the U.S.

**judedeath** · 01-21-12, 02:44 AM

Don't you know one download=one lost sale that's how it works with those companies.

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**Red_Lizard2** · 01-21-12, 02:50 AM

Originally Posted by judedeath

Don't you know one download=one lost sale that's how it works with those companies.

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I assumed with those companies it was: one download=one thousand lost sales. Oh and we need to put in some DRM that makes it take two years for legit users to jump through all the hoops. Because, you know, it might stop 10 pirates.

**Cebelius** · 01-21-12, 11:09 AM

Moving servers overseas clearly didn't work for these schmucks, they were arrested in NZ.

As for the rest of it... meh. I doubt the timing is coincidence but simply because SOPA was too broad a law does not mean that it does not address a valid concern.

Music and movies only get made because their profitable. Take the profits, and the motivation to continue producing quality fails. It's not your place to determine for someone else what they make save in that you may decide not to purchase a given product at the asking price. Claiming something is too expensive and using that as a justification to steal essentially makes you a freetard.

I'm quite sure NZ wouldn't have bothered to arrest these people on behalf of the US unless the evidence was particularly compelling. Mr. Dotcom has spent WAAAAY too much money in NZ for them to dislike him enough to simply go along to get along.

**Red_Lizard2** · 01-21-12, 04:05 PM

Originally Posted by Cebelius

Moving servers overseas clearly didn't work for these schmucks, they were arrested in NZ.

They had some servers in Virgina, that is why the U.S. was able to shut them down. Its why poker sites got their U.S. domains shut down when that raid happened, while their other sites stayed up. There was also a case of a video link site that got it's .com shut down, but kept all its other domains because they weren't "U.S. based"

**Fovezer** · 01-21-12, 06:16 PM

They tried doing this to ThePirateBay, too. Unsuccessfully, I might add. The two aren't exactly comparable, but I find these trends very troubling.
The Pirate Bay raid - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

**Glitch** · 01-21-12, 06:29 PM

I do NOT use pirated software, movies, or music... HOWEVER I do use Russian MP3 sites. They are legal IN RUSSIA. I look at it as I have outsourced my music. It is legal for companies to move factories to other countries that have less strict laws than the US so therefore it must be legal for me to buy from other countries where these laws are also less strict. I DO pay, just pennies on the dollar, just like Nike, Raytheon, etc etc etc

Piracy is bad. Legal loopholes? Well that is just good business.