FBI and Megaupload's Servers

[Pariah164]

Just saw this story:

http://www.examiner.com/video-game-in-honolulu/if-megaupload-is-not-working-what-happens-to-the-files

Not sure how valid it is, but it was enough to scare the hell out of my little sister and send her into a panic attack. She uploaded something on there a couple years back, an old episode of Charlie's Angels to use for a presentation in school.

I can't even remember if I ever uploaded anything, but I think maybe they will just go after people who uploaded massive amounts (like, terabytes) of copyright stuff.

What's your take?

 

[evilneko]

I don't know what their backup policy was, but it's doubtful a file that old is still there, also doubtful that any trace of its existence is still there. Your sister shouldn't worry.

 

[Pariah164]

Oh, I know. Not my sister I'm really worried about.

 

[Veylon]

The warrant is against Megaupload itself, not against individual users. The data on the servers is probably legally tainted by the way it was acquired and wouldn't be admissible in court against anyone but Megaupload.

 

[The Preened Mr. Fust]

Scales on a Hydra, really. Just make sure you weren't scales located anywhere near the head...

 

[GiantRaven]

I'm interested to know what percentage of files on these servers were legal and illegal. I hope that little factoid gets released in the future.

 

[Esotera]

I never used it, but by the look of how the lawsuit is going they were being rather illegal [http://torrentfreak.com/megaupload-what-made-it-a-rogue-site-worthy-of-destruction-120120/]. Basically they were intentionally seeking out copyrighted material & uploading it, and making it hard to get rid of it, or that's the claim. I still think it sucks.

As for their servers, they're not getting them back for at least 2 years, if at all. The FBI is notoriously bad at returning hardware to its owners, even if all evidence against them is dropped.

 

[VladG]

Doesn't matter if you've uploaded stuff, as far as I know they can't look through your files and accuse you of anything, it's a breach of privacy laws.

 

[Smooth Operator]

If they will go after anyone it will be the bigger fish, while they pulled off this whole Megaupload heist completely illegally they would need to take you through the legal system for real convictions, and on a single upload like that they would have no case.

Worst case scenario they mistake your sis for a terrorist and she ends up in Guantanamo, well "worst case" depends on how much you like your sis

 

[wintercoat]

I'm interested to know what percentage of files on these servers were legal and illegal. I hope that little factoid gets released in the future.

No matter what the ratio is, they have a guy who will spin it perfectly to justify rooting through people's private files. That's if they publish the findings as public anyways. This is the U.S. government we're talking about. They hold on to information like it's the water of life, no matter how inconsequential or important.

 

[GiantRaven]

I'm interested to know what percentage of files on these servers were legal and illegal. I hope that little factoid gets released in the future.

No matter what the ratio is, they have a guy who will spin it perfectly to justify rooting through people's private files. That's if they publish the findings as public anyways. This is the U.S. government we're talking about. They hold on to information like it's the water of life, no matter how inconsequential or important.

Oh I agree completely, I'm just purely curious about what the ratio is precisely. If the overwhelming majority of uploaded content is legit then it's understandable that it would be difficult for Mega Upload to find the specific copyrighted files due to the nonsense filenames and such. If the opposite is true, however, it becomes harder to defend the company since they wouldn't have a hard time finding the content if it took up most of their server space.

I don't agree with the shutting down of the site but I'm very interested in learning just how culpable they really are.

 

[VladG]

im pissed that the fbi has stolen my stuff and this happened in the 60 minutes before i had a chance to make a back up due to some computer issues.

I wonder if people who uploaded legit content (as in their own personal material) could form a class-action against the FBI, who is now technically holding their intellectual property. There are likely laws that say you can't do that... But still. In my opinion they are holding a lot of intellectual property without the owners' permission.

 

[VladG]

I'm interested to know what percentage of files on these servers were legal and illegal. I hope that little factoid gets released in the future.

No matter what the ratio is, they have a guy who will spin it perfectly to justify rooting through people's private files. That's if they publish the findings as public anyways. This is the U.S. government we're talking about. They hold on to information like it's the water of life, no matter how inconsequential or important.

Oh I agree completely, I'm just purely curious about what the ratio is precisely. If the overwhelming majority of uploaded content is legit then it's understandable that it would be difficult for Mega Upload to find the specific copyrighted files due to the nonsense filenames and such. If the opposite is true, however, it becomes harder to defend the company since they wouldn't have a hard time finding the content if it took up most of their server space.

I don't agree with the shutting down of the site but I'm very interested in learning just how culpable they really are.

Doesn't really matter, technically Megaupload shouldn't have access to people's files anyway, same way Yahoo shouldn't have access to your emails, and so on.

And as far as I know Megaupload constantly takes stuff down if there have been complaints about copyright issues.

Hell, you might as well arrest the people who invented the Internet for the same reason they shut down Megaupload.

 

[Bad Jim]

I wonder if people who uploaded legit content (as in their own personal material) could form a class-action against the FBI, who is now technically holding their intellectual property.

Intellectual property doesn't give you the right to use your ideas. It just gives you the right to prevent other people using them.