News Megaupload founder will be extradited to the U.S. to face criminal charges — now-defunct file-sharing website had cost film studios and record comp...

[Admin]

Twelve years after authorities first raided Kim Dotcom's New Zealand mansion, a justice minister there has agreed the man should be extradited to the United States to face criminal charges.

Megaupload founder will be extradited to the U.S. to face criminal charges — now-defunct file-sharing website had cost film studios and record comp... : Read more

 

[hotaru251]

.....so when are they shutting down googledrive as its rampant w/ media sharing the same as MU was.

also MU only cost em 500M? thats not a lot given the cost of stuff over the period of time the site was up for.

 

[bit_user]

.....so when are they shutting down googledrive as its rampant w/ media sharing the same as MU was.

I'm sure Google responds to copyright-based takedown notices, whereas Megaupload probably didn't even have such a mechanism.

 

[3tank]

That's quite a bold presumption to assume these people who obtained such content would have paid for it if megaupload wasn't availble- they would just live without it.

By that metric, the USPS should be charged for every instance narcotics are mailed through 3rd parties using their service

 

[tamalero]

That's quite a bold presumption to assume these people who obtained such content would have paid for it if megaupload wasn't availble- they would just live without it.

By that metric, the USPS should be charged for every instance narcotics are mailed through 3rd parties using their service

this!
Sadly, the copyright big media (music and video of USA) is more about show of force and destroy lives akin to italian mafia. (aka, "don't touch my turf" )

Anyone remembers when they sued that old grannie to hell and back, claiming she was "sharing" illegal stuff?

Or how somehow.. sharing pirate videos can net you a worse jail sentence than murdering a person.

 

[ezst036]

Sadly, the copyright big media (music and video of USA) is more about show of force and destroy lives akin to italian mafia. (aka, "don't touch my turf" )

First corporation that came to my mind was Nintendo.

 

[usertests]

Destroy Copyright

 

[Math Geek]

i remember the days of megaupload.

once you figured out the right google-fu you could find pretty much anything you wanted on there. almost always came with a side helping of a virus or 2. but you could find most anything if you knew how to look

 

[jkhoward]

This lawsuit should be dropped. I can literally find anything that was ever posted on that site anywhere on the internet. He didn’t do anything wrong that every other storage site hasn’t.

 

[deesider]

This lawsuit should be dropped. I can literally find anything that was ever posted on that site anywhere on the internet. He didn’t do anything wrong that every other storage site hasn’t.

For the most part I agree that owning a content storage site is not criminal.

However, the way the Megaupload made money was to charge for upgraded accounts that provided faster downloads. To make it worthwhile for paid subscribers, users were incentivised to upload content with payments based on the content's popularity.

- In other words, anyone who could upload the best content (i.e. copyrighted movies and music) would get paid cash money for their efforts. That extra step is the difference between a mere copyright infringer and a petty criminal, with Kim Dotcom as their ringleader.

 

[peterf28]

He will survive in US prison. He will read, exercise, educate other inmates, looe weight. He is very strong personality, US prison will not break him, maybe even make him stronger.

 

[gg83]

This is the last thing we should be worried about. There are much bigger problems to be focusing on. Nobody today even knows what megaupload is.

 

[gg83]

That's quite a bold presumption to assume these people who obtained such content would have paid for it if megaupload wasn't availble- they would just live without it.

By that metric, the USPS should be charged for every instance narcotics are mailed through 3rd parties using their service

Exactly! Nobody can actually quantify the potential "losses". Sometimes pirating gave a movie or artist more exposure.

 

[newtechldtech]

Soooo the people who uploaded and downloaded copyrighted movies just got their account deleted , and never faced charges ??? come on ...

and Most of the copyrighted movies on megaupload were of lower quality and lower resolution , ANY one could record from normal TV broadcast ..

this is UNFIAR

 

[pixelpusher220]

Exactly! Nobody can actually quantify the potential "losses". Sometimes pirating gave a movie or artist more exposure.

Napster users bought *more* music than non users. It was the first instance of digital 'radio'. It was used to 'find' content and then buy more of that. Certainly not everyone, but on average that's what most people did. Piracy waned pretty significantly once legal streaming services came to market - proving that it wasn't intent to steal but just find and consume more content.

At least until companies enshitified the streaming at stupid prices and now sharing is making a comeback. Funny how that works.

Copyright is so entirely broken, but zero political will to take on the content industries.

 

[bit_user]

Napster ... was the first instance of digital 'radio'.

No, it was not. Back in the mid '90s, there was a company called RealNetworks that (along with others I forget) introduced audio streaming, via their RealAudio codec. There were live internet radio stations you could tune into and listen to, even before MP3 piracy went mainstream.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RealAudio
​

Just wanted to correct that fact.

 

[Math Geek]

Damn how much I hated real player.

But the radio feature was rather nice. Short lived, but nice

 

[RedBaron616]

.....so when are they shutting down googledrive as its rampant w/ media sharing the same as MU was.

also MU only cost em 500M? thats not a lot given the cost of stuff over the period of time the site was

That's quite a bold presumption to assume these people who obtained such content would have paid for it if megaupload wasn't availble- they would just live without it.

By that metric, the USPS should be charged for every instance narcotics are mailed through 3rd parties using their service

Totally agree. Back in the day when mp3 were all the download rage, I downloaded lots of music. Had I not been able to download it, I would NOT have ran down to the music department of a store and bought the music. It was nice to have, but certainly not necessary enough that had download not been available, I would simply have done without. I am surprised the music companies don't fight sales of used CDs or CDs available from public libraries. And yes, I know CDs aren't a thing now, but I still prefer them to download from and actually have a "hard" copy.

 

[RedBaron616]

Napster users bought *more* music than non users. It was the first instance of digital 'radio'. It was used to 'find' content and then buy more of that. Certainly not everyone, but on average that's what most people did. Piracy waned pretty significantly once legal streaming services came to market - proving that it wasn't intent to steal but just find and consume more content.

At least until companies enshitified the streaming at stupid prices and now sharing is making a comeback. Funny how that works.

Copyright is so entirely broken, but zero political will to take on the content industries.

It is just like copyright is supposed to drop off on content after so many years, but because of the Big Bucks like Disney gives out like candy to Congress, it is no longer happening. Big Business rules.

 

[RedBaron616]

Soooo the people who uploaded and downloaded copyrighted movies just got their account deleted , and never faced charges ??? come on ...

and Most of the copyrighted movies on megaupload were of lower quality and lower resolution , ANY one could record from normal TV broadcast ..

this is UNFIAR

Additionally, how do you charge a non-U.S. citizen with U.S. crimes not committed physically in the U.S.? Why would a non-U.S. citizen be held to our laws on something like this? Yes, I know, Hollywood sends lots of money to the politicians. Otherwise, this seems a bit absurd.

 

[RedBaron616]

This is the last thing we should be worried about. There are much bigger problems to be focusing on. Nobody today even knows what megaupload is.

But when you send many millions to campaign contributions, suddenly it becomes important, whether it is or not.

 

[RedBaron616]

He will survive in US prison. He will read, exercise, educate other inmates, looe weight. He is very strong personality, US prison will not break him, maybe even make him stronger.

Unless he is "Epsteined".

 

[RedBaron616]

Destroy Copyright

No, simply go back to the days when copyright expired in a normal way after a decent number of years. But this means Mickey Mouse would be public domain now and we all know how deep Mickey's owners have.

 

[usertests]

No, simply go back to the days when copyright expired in a normal way after a decent number of years. But this means Mickey Mouse would be public domain now and we all know how deep Mickey's owners have.

I don't see "sensible copyright" becoming part of the platform for any major political party. We will be engaged in the same cat-and-mouse game forever, with the pirates largely winning.

 

[bit_user]

I am surprised the music companies don't fight sales of used CDs or CDs available from public libraries.

Ever since cassette tapes, record companies have been concerned about piracy by consumers. However, I gather the music industry survived just fine, during cassette era. The threat they perceived from CDs was that you could make a "perfect" copy... and a "perfect" copy of that... and so on. Their solution was to introduce a weird tax on blank recordable CD Audio media that gets paid out to the record companies. However, the same tax didn't apply to recordable data CDs, which it turned out you could still use to make "Redbook" audio CDs.

Throughout the 90's, I don't really recall audio CD recorders taking off, in the US. The hardware was very expensive, so I gather most people just kept using cassettes (until the MP3 era). Therefore, the issue didn't really have to be faced head-on, when the only threat was physical media. They certainly, did try to devise some Redbook CD copy-protection schemes, but they were either circumvented easily enough or caused too many compatibility problems with players.

However, I think that concern over copying with lack of "generation loss" is why they were also much more concerned about CD ripping and peer-to-peer networks for sharing MP3s. Even though a tiny fraction of MP3 downloaders would've bought its CD (i.e. truly represented lost sales), many of them would share the MP3 to others who might've otherwise bought the CD. The looming problem they faced was: if everyone is copying, then nobody is buying and their industry collapses. There certainly was a generation of kids who didn't get habituated into buying musing and the concept even seemed strange to them. I think the industry wasn't concerned over nothing.

Had I not been able to download it, I would NOT have ran down to the music department of a store and bought the music.

Same thing for me. However, even if their sales just declined by like 50%, such a precipitous drop could make their economic model non-viable. So, whether it was reasonable or not, they used every opportunity possible to claim "loss of sales" and try to strike fear in the file-sharing public, in order to suppress the phenomenon.

It is just like copyright is supposed to drop off on content after so many years, but because of the Big Bucks like Disney gives out like candy to Congress, it is no longer happening. ... But this means Mickey Mouse would be public domain now ...

Nope. The copyright limit did finally stop getting extended. I guess you didn't hear about Steamboat Willie?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steamboat_Willie#Copyright_status
​

Big Business rules.

Yeah, but I guess there are limits... and it turns out that IP is easier & cheaper to create than ever. By now, probably just a couple % of Disney's business involves those old cartoon characters and their value is perhaps mostly as a figurehead.

Additionally, how do you charge a non-U.S. citizen with U.S. crimes not committed physically in the U.S.? Why would a non-U.S. citizen be held to our laws on something like this?

Fair question. I'm not sure what's the legal basis for that. I'm sure there is one, but I have no idea how the laws in the US & elsewhere enable not just extradition, but then subsequent prosecution in such circumstances. If anyone has actual knowledge of how this works, I'd be interested in hearing it.