Megaupload Blames U.S. Government For Massive Data Wipe

[Doom972]

Alot of there stuff they had was illegal and pirated stuff wasn't it? So they can hardly complain stuff was deleted illegally when they allowed people to upload illegal stuff. Funny how criminals break the law to make money, but then quote the law when it suits them.

That's totalitarian regime logic. Legitimate shouldn't have to lose their data because others abused the service. I'd also like to remind you that US law is only for the US. Even if Megaupload is to blame for the piracy, users should've gotten a reasonable amount of time (I'd say 14 days) to download their data back.

 

[Gearhead mk2]

The US government does something stupid and illegal in another country that doesn't have the same laws and they get nothing more then a stern look?

Must be that time of the week again. At least nothing exploded this time.

 

[McMullen]

Many moany people commenting about me. lol. End of the day, the legal users were screwed by that site allowing illegal downloads etc. Dont moan at me, moan at them. They allowed illegal content on their site thus they screwed over the legal users. Moan at them for a refund, but everyone new that site had illegal downloads on it so grow up and stop moaning. It sucks that people lost legal stuff, but its not like they are naive and didnt know what that site was like.

The precedent that would set is that all services of all types could be shut down and the legitimate users held responsible for any losses they incur as a result. Consider also that some people, contractors for example, might not prefer to use Megaupload but must do so anyway because their clients prefer it. Are they to blame for the huge financial losses they could incur as a result?

At the very least, the US government could have handled it a lot better. As it is, they have done a great deal of damage to a lot of people, and it was entirely avoidable.

 

[KeyMaster45]

Alot of there stuff they had was illegal and pirated stuff wasn't it? So they can hardly complain stuff was deleted illegally when they allowed people to upload illegal stuff. Funny how criminals break the law to make money, but then quote the law when it suits them.

A lot is not the same as all, and you can't possibly know that. No one is a criminal yet because no one has been officially put on trail.

This is just another shitty move in the massive list of shitty moves by the US this last month. So ashamed I live in this country.

Yup, it's becoming quite the list. Let's see: Russia, China(Blaming these two for helping Snowden), the entirety of Latin America(giving false data to prevent the Bolivian president from returning home), Europe(bugging pretty much all EU diplomats, PRISM)... the US has now pissed off what, 50% off the world in the past two weeks?

It's pretty impressive isn't it? We've accumulated about as much bad PR as we have in the last 10 years in a short 14 days. Plus it's kinda funny to watch the office of president be brutally shown to be the useless figurehead position it really is.

 

[Baldr]

Alot of there stuff they had was illegal and pirated stuff wasn't it? So they can hardly complain stuff was deleted illegally when they allowed people to upload illegal stuff. Funny how criminals break the law to make money, but then quote the law when it suits them.

So if somebody rents a storage locker and puts heroin in it, everyone else with lockers in the same facility should lose all their stuff when he gets busted?

The government didn't erase the stuff, the company did. When the storage company dumps all the lockers after a bust, you have a beef with the storage company, not the Government.

I believe the idea is that the company did so under coercion from the US Government, making in part culpable for the loss of data. At very least the government should have had it preserved for evidence against Megaupload. But as the accusation goes, they also deleted evidence that can exculpate the company and it's owner, which at absolute best is destruction of evidence.

As of right now there is absolutely no proof of coercion. If proof ever appears, then you can start putting some heat on the Government. If the company broke laws then it all back on the company.

 

[Baldr]

Many moany people commenting about me. lol. End of the day, the legal users were screwed by that site allowing illegal downloads etc. Dont moan at me, moan at them. They allowed illegal content on their site thus they screwed over the legal users. Moan at them for a refund, but everyone new that site had illegal downloads on it so grow up and stop moaning. It sucks that people lost legal stuff, but its not like they are naive and didnt know what that site was like.

Clearly you don't understand legal procedure in these types of cases. Megaupload's content was almost completely user generated. That meant that users could put up whatever they wanted on it. By law, if someone uses the ability to post user generated content to post illegal materials, the owner of the site is not legally liable so long as they did not know about or condone the posting of illegal materials. That last part is the key part of the US' case against Megaupload. What you're saying, basically, is equivalent to saying that, for example, the US government should have the right to take the whole of the Escapist down because one user posts, for example, Child Porn and the Escapist, who hypothetically knew nothing about it, didn't prevent them from doing so.

There is no second thought the Government would shut this site down if the admins did not doing something about it first. That was the whole problem with Megaupload, the admins knew it was occurring and never did anything to stop it.

 

[Mayamellissa]

I miss you, Megaupload... I miss you so much!

 

[Fox12]

Americans are SORE losers...

Very SORE losers

Yeah we really are [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki]

OT:

Wow... Just WOW... "Hey you there fishing in that lake without a license!!!! We do not know where you live so we will burn every house and boat next to or on the lake!!!! OK lets take a look... Innocent,Innocent,Innocent,Innocent..... YEAH WE GOT THE GUY BREAKING THE LAW TOO!!!!!"

Our legal system is so fucking retarded... Next thing you know we will be arresting people for buying water that looks like it is in a beer box....... Awww shit.

I'll probably be crucified for this, but the Hiroshima/Nagasaki attack was actually pretty defendable. Some people have claimed that the Japanese wanted to surrender, but that's been pretty much debunked. The Japanese military was prepared to fight to the end. If the United States had invaded the nation, an estimated 3 million people would have died, as opposed to the 300,000 that died from the blast. More people died in the firebombing campaign of the Japanese capital than died in the atomic blast, the same fire bombing campaigns that had leveled half of Europe. If that campaign had continued, the results would have been far more deadly. The fire bombings just don't have the psychological affects of a nuclear weapon. We also warned the Japanese of out intentions (though we didn't list specific targets).

Keep in mind that the Japanese military basically asked for this. No, I'm not talking about Pearl Harbor, though it was foolish of them to involve another nation in the conflict. Japan seemed to think war with the U.S. was inevitable, when it was not a foregone conclusion. Instead I'm referring to the Japanese war crimes against the Chinese, war crimes so brutal that they put the Nazis to shame. I won't even hint at the horrors committed, but if you want to know more, read The Rape of Nanking for a more detailed account.

Therefore the Japanese refused an unconditional surrender, an attack on mainland Japan would have cost more lives on both sides, and the Japanese had committed horrible atrocities against their enemies. I'm not saying they "deserved" it, but they definitely put themselves in a position where there was almost no other option. Several million deaths is worse than several hundred thousand, and I feel that the event gets undue publicity due to it being the only time that nuclear weapons have ever been used. How many people died in the bombing in Europe? Far more, but people seem to think that it was more justified, so we forget about it.

I think the real villain was the Japanese military, and it's still a tragedy that civilians died in the attack. The U.S. wasn't sinless either, don't get me wrong. We imprisoned the entire Japanese American population due to racism and committed other terrible crimes as well, so we weren't saints. I just don't believe, at that point, that there was another viable option. It's also strange that far worse war crimes were committed by both the Axis and the Allies, but most people seem to forget about them.

 

[Hazy]

Americans are SORE losers...

Very SORE losers

Yeah we really are [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki]

To be fair, we did warn them ahead of time (according to some, I could be wrong, it's sketchy). And, as atrocious as it was, many historians speculate that the number of lives lost would have been far greater than if we hadn't dropped the bomb. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17lkdqoLt44][footnote]That was in poor taste, I'm sorry, but I couldn't resist.[/footnote]

Anyway, moving away from 1940s nuclear catastrophes, The United States needs to stop asserting itself as the police officer of the world.

 

[uncanny474]

Alot of there stuff they had was illegal and pirated stuff wasn't it? So they can hardly complain stuff was deleted illegally when they allowed people to upload illegal stuff. Funny how criminals break the law to make money, but then quote the law when it suits them.

So if somebody rents a storage locker and puts heroin in it, everyone else with lockers in the same facility should lose all their stuff when he gets busted?

The government didn't erase the stuff, the company did. When the storage company dumps all the lockers after a bust, you have a beef with the storage company, not the Government.

When the storage company dumps the lockers because you couldn't pay them (due to all your assets being frozen) and the Government refused to, and when some of the stuff they dumped could have cleared your name, then yeah, your beef is with the Government. Beef in this case meaning mistrial.

 

[Bevin Warren]

Americans are SORE losers...

Very SORE losers

Yeah we really are [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki]

OT:

Wow... Just WOW... "Hey you there fishing in that lake without a license!!!! We do not know where you live so we will burn every house and boat next to or on the lake!!!! OK lets take a look... Innocent,Innocent,Innocent,Innocent..... YEAH WE GOT THE GUY BREAKING THE LAW TOO!!!!!"

Our legal system is so fucking retarded... Next thing you know we will be arresting people for buying water that looks like it is in a beer box....... Awww shit.

I'll probably be crucified for this, but the Hiroshima/Nagasaki attack was actually pretty defendable. Some people have claimed that the Japanese wanted to surrender, but that's been pretty much debunked. The Japanese military was prepared to fight to the end. If the United States had invaded the nation, an estimated 3 million people would have died, as opposed to the 300,000 that died from the blast. More people died in the firebombing campaign of the Japanese capital than died in the atomic blast, the same fire bombing campaigns that had leveled half of Europe. If that campaign had continued, the results would have been far more deadly. The fire bombings just don't have the psychological affects of a nuclear weapon. We also warned the Japanese of out intentions (though we didn't list specific targets).

Keep in mind that the Japanese military basically asked for this. No, I'm not talking about Pearl Harbor, though it was foolish of them to involve another nation in the conflict. Japan seemed to think war with the U.S. was inevitable, when it was not a foregone conclusion. Instead I'm referring to the Japanese war crimes against the Chinese, war crimes so brutal that they put the Nazis to shame. I won't even hint at the horrors committed, but if you want to know more, read The Rape of Nanking for a more detailed account.

Therefore the Japanese refused an unconditional surrender, an attack on mainland Japan would have cost more lives on both sides, and the Japanese had committed horrible atrocities against their enemies. I'm not saying they "deserved" it, but they definitely put themselves in a position where there was almost no other option. Several million deaths is worse than several hundred thousand, and I feel that the event gets undue publicity due to it being the only time that nuclear weapons have ever been used. How many people died in the bombing in Europe? Far more, but people seem to think that it was more justified, so we forget about it.

I think the real villain was the Japanese military, and it's still a tragedy that civilians died in the attack. The U.S. wasn't sinless either, don't get me wrong. We imprisoned the entire Japanese American population due to racism and committed other terrible crimes as well, so we weren't saints. I just don't believe, at that point, that there was another viable option. It's also strange that far worse war crimes were committed by both the Axis and the Allies, but most people seem to forget about them.

Fox12 - I agree with you and so will any competent military historian

 

[Baldr]

There is no second thought the Government would shut this site down if the admins did not doing something about it first. That was the whole problem with Megaupload, the admins knew it was occurring and never did anything to stop it.

Well, apparently people have said that Megaupload was fairly diligent about removing stuff when asked, which is exactly all they are legally obligated to do. It isn't their job to remove any material they think could possibly be copyrighted. The indictment complained that they had extensive provisions for removing child pornography but wouldn't do anything to remove copyrighted material. Well they are two completely different things and removing child pornography (which is always illegal) isn't the same as arbitrarily removing material you think might be copyrighted.

In any case, the whole thing is rather disgusting. The US Government is abusing their power, their reach and their judicial discretion, all the behest of Corporations who believe that Megaupload threatened their business. Why? Because it's easier for them to put pressure on the government to shut them down than it is to provide better products and services for their consumer bases. You can see that in the indictment, the US government was basically on a witch hunt to get Megaupload on something, they even indicted them for using ads on their site, claiming that by doing so they were profiting from criminal activity.

You Americans can't let your government be held hostage by these corporations. Look at SOPA/PIPA/ACTA/CISPA. Those four bills were/are corporate attempts to infringe on your rights in the exact same way that they have infringed on the rights of Megaupload, to exactly the same ends. Piracy is a service problem, and always will be. Copyright infringement is also, and always will be, a civil dispute.

There is such thing as criminal copyright under federal law. United States Code Title 18 Section 2319. Even New Zealand has criminal copyright laws.

I am one of the victims of Megaupload, I put in several complaints against them not taking down my companies copyright material, in which they did nothing about. I'm not some multimillion dollar corporation. They got what they deserved.

 

[Andy Chalk]

The government didn't erase the stuff, the company did. When the storage company dumps all the lockers after a bust, you have a beef with the storage company, not the Government.

A valid point. The problem is that it's the US government preventing Mega from maintaining the data by refusing to unfreeze even just enough cash to settle the matter with Carpathia. According to its lawyer, the US is obliged by precedent to maintain that data if it has de facto control of the servers, and while I have no idea if that's actually true I assume that Dotcom's legal team isn't just making this stuff up - and if so, that makes it a beef with the government.

 

[RicoADF]

The US reaching beyond their borders to enforce their internal legislation? NAAAAAHHHH!

I wonder what the Bolivian president thinks about this.

And Americans wonder why the world hates their country (mostly their government agencies) so much. The US had no right to touch any of the servers unless some were in their country. They seem to think their judge, jury and executioner in every other country.