Megaupload Successor Shut Down Before Debut

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kinggremlin

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Why is the FBI involved in what at worst should by a civil lawsuit? Why was the site shut down like this when again, it was a matter of copyright infringement (if even actually through the fault of the site's owners), not some sort of major crime? Why are these people wanted to be extradited to the USA over such a thing when that'd be in violation of their rights? This whole mess stinks of corporate trash.

The scale of the crime determines who is involved. The FBI isn't mobilizing a special OPS task force to go after some random small time coca paste producer in Peru and trying to extradite him. When it's a kingping like Pablo Escobar, the Gov't is sending everyone in after him.

The scale of Dotcom's copyright infringements were at a Pablo Escobar level. There are few people in the world anyone can name who oversaw a site with more illegal transfers than him. The fact that he drew so much attention to himself didn't help either. His own stupidity got him there. Trying to start up a new site when you haven't even gotten legally cleared of the first mess is simply further proof this guy is a retard.
 
[citation][nom]azxcvbnm321[/nom]What do you mean there's no proof? Hundreds of thousands of users can attest to the illegal fire sharing Megaupload was famous for. Now I'll have to ask you if any jury will find it reasonable that the execs at Megaupload didn't know about this illegal file sharing?Furthermore, the entire business structure of Megaupload was based upon illegal sharing. Users only needed to pay if they wanted to download a lot. Now what type of legal files uploaded from random unknown users, would get that much attention and attract people to pay for bandwidth? Files found only on Megaupload, not on the free photograph sites or Facebook? Any intelligent unbiased person would have to conclude that the business structure was based upon illegal file sharing, the business model would not work otherwise. As for corporations using megaupload, give me a break, why would you want confidential files or private information to be "shared" and available to anyone who gets their hands on the link? No way, that's a lawsuit and liability waiting to be filed. If you have unimportant documents, then there's Google Docs. Speaking of Google Docs, there's a legitimate site that doesn't depend upon illegal file sharing. Notice how it's free, why would anyone bother with Megaupload unless it offered illegal files? Again, it doesn't take a genius to figure it out and a jury will convict.[/citation]

Youtube has a ton of copyright infringing videos, but Google isn't in trouble for it because it's not their fault, it's the fault of their users. The exact same principle should apply here. Try again.

I know many, many people who used Megaupload legally (including myself). People can say that there were superior services and maybe they're right, but Megaupload had what might be the best bandwidth, maximum upload/download size, and capacity balance for free accounts. Huge amounts of people (including the many members of the US government and military) used Megaupload legally just fine just as many people use Youtube legally just fine.

If you want a start for legal files uploaded there, how about a ton of freeware like an alternative to download.com? How about personal/business files (encrypted where necessary, of course)? How about a whole lot of other things?

What there is no proof of is that the site's owners were at fault for their users' actions and that's what matters.
 

QEFX

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[citation][nom]eddieroolz[/nom]I'm sure the FBI offered a very generous sum to the Gabonian government for this.[/citation]

Unless things have changed, the FBI is US domestic only. It would be the CIA or the diplomats that suggested the Gabonian government change things. Actually it must have been the diplomats since nobody died and the US got it's way ... that usually doesn't happen when the CIA gets involved.



As a side note: That was just a joke. I appreciate all the hard working people at the CIA and would prefer none of them show up at my place to give me a "Thumbs Down CIA Style"
 


As of yet, nothing has really proven that Kim Dotcom and the rest of his staff were responsible for what happened on the site in that way. Again, we don't blame Google for what some Youtube members do, so why should we blame Megaupload for what some users do? We don't do this to most other file sharing sites despite the fact that the exact same issues go on with them too, so why is it just Megaupload that is down?

Heck, the pirate bay practically admits to intentionally allowing such stuff, yet they're not shut down and in custody.
 

kinggremlin

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[citation][nom]blazorthon[/nom]Youtube has a ton of copyright infringing videos, but Google isn't in trouble for it because it's not their fault, it's the fault of their users. The exact same principle should apply here. Try again.[/citation]

Google isn't in trouble because whenever the rightful owner asks them to take the video down, they do. There were no such policies or procedures in place at Megaupload and as if Dotcom thought everyone else was total retard basically acted like MegaUpload wasn't used to illegally transfer copyrighted material on a massive scale.
 


FBI is behind all of this right now. I can argue that they shouldn't be all day long, but they are the ones who made this mess what it is.
 

kinggremlin

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Heck, the pirate bay practically admits to intentionally allowing such stuff, yet they're not shut down and in custody.

You must be about 5 years old if you aren't aware of what legal troubles the PirateBay has been in over the years, including having all their servers seized and the founders being found guilty of copyright infringment and sentenced to a year in prison plus a $3.6 million fine.
 
[citation][nom]kinggremlin[/nom]Google isn't in trouble because whenever the rightful owner asks them to take the video down, they do. There were no such policies or procedures in place at Megaupload and as if Dotcom thought everyone else was total retard basically acted like MegaUpload wasn't used to illegally transfer copyrighted material on a massive scale.[/citation]

Megaupload removed many illegal uploads as requested, so that argument just went under for you. Whether or not they removed enough of them is questionable, but has not been proven nor disproved. Innocent until proven guilt, remember?

[citation][nom]kinggremlin[/nom]You must be about 5 years old if you aren't aware of what legal troubles the PirateBay has been in over the years, including having all their servers seized and the founders being found guilty of copyright infringment and sentenced to a year in prison plus a $3.6 million fine.[/citation]

Doesn't matter because they're doing just fine right now and have been for quite some time. Most "legal issues" have been indirect attacks against them in the form of getting court orders for ISPs to block DNS look-ups for some of their domains, not much that actually matters. Insults won't get you anywhere.
 

kinggremlin

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[citation][nom]blazorthon[/nom]Megaupload removed many illegal uploads as requested, so that argument just went under for you. Whether or not they removed enough of them is questionable, but has not been proven nor disproved. Innocent until proven guilt, remember?[/citation]

You haven't read the indictment if you believe any of what you just wrote there.


[citation]Doesn't matter because they're doing just fine right now and have been for quite some time. Most "legal issues" have been indirect attacks against them in the form of getting court orders for ISPs to block DNS look-ups for some of their domains, not much that actually matters. Insults won't get you anywhere.[/citation]

From way back in September.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/sep/02/pirate-bay-founder-arrested-cambodia

Your definition of "doing just fine" differs significantly from mine.
 
[citation][nom]kinggremlin[/nom]You haven't read the indictment if you believe any of what you just wrote there.[citation]Doesn't matter because they're doing just fine right now and have been for quite some time. Most "legal issues" have been indirect attacks against them in the form of getting court orders for ISPs to block DNS look-ups for some of their domains, not much that actually matters. Insults won't get you anywhere.[/citation]From way back in September.http://www.guardian.co.uk/technolo [...] d-cambodiaYour definition of "doing just fine" differs significantly from mine.[/citation]

Considering that I've watched stuff get taken down and replaced by taken down for copyright violation notices, I most certianly do believe what I said.

Perhaps I was wrong about the pirate bay in that sense, but my points about the rest still apply.
 

Kami3k

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[citation][nom]kinggraves[/nom]Yes, Africa will have no part of something criminal like copyright infringement. Child slavery, REAL naval piracy, and bloody coups, sure. But not copyright infringement.Here's a free translation: "We like the money the US sends us to pretend we follow their human rights rules. We can't afford to lose that so we won't openly help you. Of course wherever you do decide to set up, send us the link because our people sure can't afford to buy Western goods."[/citation]

Newsflash Sarah Palin, Africa isn't a country.
 

bin1127

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How could Gabon possibly provide enough electricity to run megaupload? It makes no sense physically to place your corporation in a third world country.
 

therabiddeer

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[citation][nom]blazorthon[/nom]Problem is he's not caught in anything and there's no proof, so he's being worked with as guilt until proven innocent (which is supposed to be against USA law). Make your opinions as you want, but the facts don't support your opinion, at least not legally, which is what matters for legal processes.[/citation]
There is tons of proof, why the hell do you think hes fighting extradition so hard? lol. If he was innocent and knew it, he would just go to court and get it over with. He is also guilty of more than just hosting pirated content.
 
[citation][nom]therabiddeer[/nom]There is tons of proof, why the hell do you think hes fighting extradition so hard? lol. If he was innocent and knew it, he would just go to court and get it over with. He is also guilty of more than just hosting pirated content.[/citation]

If there was proof, then we'd be able to see it and he'd have probably already been extradited rather than fighting it. Why wold he go to court over it? Many people who have been innocent have been convicted, especially in copyright legal issues such as this. Even worse, many people have been given ridiculous punishments for minor crimes in this (such as individual people being fined millions of dollars per song downloaded when they downloaded a few songs or when someone else used their stuff to download stuff illegally) You and others say that he is guilt of many things, but no one has offered any proof and what I've seen with my own eyes discredits some of you guys' claims.
 

kinggraves

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[citation][nom]azxcvbnm321[/nom]What do you mean there's no proof? Hundreds of thousands of users can attest to the illegal fire sharing Megaupload was famous for. Now I'll have to ask you if any jury will find it reasonable that the execs at Megaupload didn't know about this illegal file sharing?Furthermore, the entire business structure of Megaupload was based upon illegal sharing. Users only needed to pay if they wanted to download a lot. Now what type of legal files uploaded from random unknown users, would get that much attention and attract people to pay for bandwidth? Files found only on Megaupload, not on the free photograph sites or Facebook? Any intelligent unbiased person would have to conclude that the business structure was based upon illegal file sharing, the business model would not work otherwise. As for corporations using megaupload, give me a break, why would you want confidential files or private information to be "shared" and available to anyone who gets their hands on the link? No way, that's a lawsuit and liability waiting to be filed. If you have unimportant documents, then there's Google Docs. Speaking of Google Docs, there's a legitimate site that doesn't depend upon illegal file sharing. Notice how it's free, why would anyone bother with Megaupload unless it offered illegal files? Again, it doesn't take a genius to figure it out and a jury will convict.[/citation]
Here's the problem, you don't understand how a criminal case works. There is zero assumption whatsoever, the proof has to solidly show that without a doubt they knowingly did not delete files that were reported and that doing so was a criminal offense. Your little story has a lot of assumptions without solid evidence. It wouldn't hold up in court, which is why the US case has already failed and he's still in NZ. Anyone who uses MU also knows that files get deleted when reported all the time. They just did not delete them often enough or fast enough to satisfy the industry. Unfortunately, the media industry does not make the laws like they seem to think. He probably is guilty, that is not how the justice system works. How would you like the police to pull you over and immediately arrest you because you're "probably" guilty of something, then search for probable cause later? He doesn't need to show up for court.

There also needs to be serious substantial cause to extradite him based on RICO. Comparing him to the likes of the Gambinos or Pablo Escobar is absurd. Those crime syndicates caused murders among dozens of other major felonies. People do not die from copyright infringement. RICO was not created so the feds could just have an excuse to invade foreign countries and arrest whoever they wanted.

[citation][nom]kinggremlin[/nom]Google isn't in trouble because whenever the rightful owner asks them to take the video down, they do. There were no such policies or procedures in place at Megaupload and as if Dotcom thought everyone else was total retard basically acted like MegaUpload wasn't used to illegally transfer copyrighted material on a massive scale.[/citation]

Again, files on MU were deleted regularly, just not "often enough". There's no law against not deleting copyrighted material "soon enough", it's a civil matter between two parties and would not be grounds for extradition.

tl;dr It doesn't matter if he's actually guilty of the crimes at this point, what matters is whether or not they had substantial proof for an arrest and extradition. Kim Dotcom is a criminal, a lot of free men are. This isn't Minority Report.

[citation][nom]Kami3k[/nom]Newsflash Sarah Palin, Africa isn't a country.[/citation]

Newsflash, Maverick. I never claimed it was a country. However the entire continent pretty much functions about the same with a few exceptions here and there, so I'm treating it as a common ground. I'm not even sure if they know which country they're in half the time considering how frequently government changes take place. It isn't like he isn't going to hop through all of them in the end.

I will admit though that Gabon is one of the "nicer" countries in Africa.
 

xrodney

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[citation][nom]therabiddeer[/nom]There is tons of proof, why the hell do you think hes fighting extradition so hard? lol. If he was innocent and knew it, he would just go to court and get it over with. He is also guilty of more than just hosting pirated content.[/citation]
Sorry to disappoint, but US government is not one that have problem to break law or 2 to get what they want. They pretty much show that in past.
Also breaking US law on non US soil is kind of joke. US should stick to their own borders and keep bullying their own citizens.
 

rdc85

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[citation][nom]bin1127[/nom]How could Gabon possibly provide enough electricity to run megaupload? It makes no sense physically to place your corporation in a third world country.[/citation]

I think it only host the web page, the actual file will be chopped and encrypted spread across server, nation, and maybe continent...

This is what they think it's a raid proof... (almost the same as how TPB works with magnet links and cloud service)
 

merikafyeah

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Title is misleading, ie WRONG. The site wasn't shut down, only the shortened domain was seized. The actual site is http://kim.com/mega/
Most likely just a placeholder site as Dotcom said he wouldn't use FBI-seizable domains like .com or .net.
 

demonhorde665

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this is all bull sh---, i guess the goverment never did any REAL investigation on mega uplaod , because teh VAST majority of people using it were legit users backing up THEIR creations not copy righted materials. it's further bull sh-- that now they try to shut down any form of internet storage sites, simply because the MPAA and RIAA are afraid that one out billions of users will use it for illegal copies.


when our western society does come to an end (and it will end one day there is a cycle of golden ages and dark ages ), humanity is gonna have one hell of a hard time picking through the remains to find any thing of value to rebuild with. all these corperations dont think of the big picture though. just theior day to day botom line.

on another side of things . it seems teh corperations want to stop the growth of non affiliated, unsigned , and uncontrolled music . i also know many musicians and artist that used mega upload to get their songs art ,and what not out there.
 

discboy321

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Why would you Publicly announce the new web site Knowing that it will cause Friction. If I was him I would go ahead with a different web site under a different name as well. Keep it under the (radar) to speak.
 
[citation][nom]discboy321[/nom]Why would you Publicly announce the new web site Knowing that it will cause Friction. If I was him I would go ahead with a different web site under a different name as well. Keep it under the (radar) to speak.[/citation]

A file sharing/hosting site that is under the radar might not get much business. The added publicity that the governments and agencies are giving this may work to his advantage like how Apple's hating on Samsung seems to have contributed to Samsung having record sales lately.
 

classzero

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[citation][nom]freggo[/nom]There is never a runaway Mack Truck when you need one.The world does not need wasted DNA like this moron.[/citation]
I would thumb this down but it is at -20 so I can't
 
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