Megaupload Founder Claims Many U.S. Government Users

[MetalMagpie]

NZ's rolling over on this makes me ashamed of my country's government. While I don't support copyright infringement and the owners of the site undoubtedly knowingly profited from these activities Dotcom should NEVER have been extradited from NZ to appease the business interests of American media conglomerates.

Same here. Our spineless Home Secretary just signed another extradition order for a British student. Again, for copyright infringement charges. He committed the crime in the UK, he is a citizen of the UK, and he should be put on trial in the UK.

His mother had this to say: "Today, yet another British citizen is being sold down the river by the British Government."

And I agree.

 

[Andy Chalk]

There's no denying that copyright infringement was the bread and butter of Megaupload

Actually, rest assured there will be plenty of denying going on if this goes to trial in the US.

Yeah, that may have been a poor choice of words, although I certainly didn't expect that Team Kneejerk would get itself in quite so many knots over the semantics of "bread and butter." In any event, while consideration of the legality of Dotcom's actions is warranted, the real point here for those who missed it is the harsh, globe-spanning application of U.S. law in order to serve U.S. interests.

I've used Megaupload for legitimate purposes myself. Small or new publishers and indie game companies use it (or used to) to distribute review copies of games. It's a gross oversimplification but I can't help thinking that if Megaupload needs to be destroyed because some people use it for piracy, why aren't guns in the U.S. strictly controlled because some people use them to commit murder?

But in a case like this the issues move beyond mere copyright infringement and into questions of sovereignty. Whose law applies? And who applies the law?

 

[ThunderCavalier]

Ah, damn...

I was kinda happy when they took down Megaupload. I mean, let's not deny it; there's a lot of copyrighted and pirated material that's floating around in there.

However, maybe it was probably a bad idea to completely axe the site, given how many people might have some important files on it. Hopefully any important files can be recovered at the end of this.

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

That is the best veiled threat ever. "We know you assholes had accounts, if anything happens to me there will be an 'evil anonymous hacker' who will take your files and show the rest of the world what you stored. Probably including a bunch of incriminating stuff you didn't store. Your move."

Could you imagine if the government ever tried to mess with Google?

 

[Croaker42]

NZ's rolling over on this makes me ashamed of my country's government. While I don't support copyright infringement and the owners of the site undoubtedly knowingly profited from these activities Dotcom should NEVER have been extradited from NZ to appease the business interests of American media conglomerates.

Agreed on every level.
The US govt's behavior on this is beyond shady and should be held in contempt.

 

[grigjd3]

Ok, I know this article is about important stuff, but the guy's name is really Dotcom? I mean, I'm a nerd and all, but really?

 

[shintakie10]

Thats quite a horribly biased article. I get that the Escapist is all "rawr piracy smash" but this is just sad.

Explain how.

Theres a post 13 before mine that explains it better than I ever could. Your other point that the only thing we seem to be upset about is your use of the bread and butter line, but theres also the part where you assert that he is tryin to "muddy the waters" by continuin the same lines he has used since the start, namely that the majority of the business that Megaupload did was legitimate and the majority of the money they gained was through legitimate means.

Perhaps you simply phrased it wrong, in which case I retract my earlier statement. I honestly am just gettin tired of the same old anti-piracy line that pops up in a lot of articles regardless of whether it actually fits in the context of the story or not.

 

[Use_Imagination_here]

Just goes to higlight just how fucking stupid and quite frankly (it feels weird to say this about goverment officials but it still applies) completely unprofessional shutting down this site was.

 

[Logarithmic Limbo]

...there were reports around that he was found with a couple of sawn-off shotguns...

I am not sure exactly how the gun situation looks in NZ, not having any numbers to back me up but a gut feeling tells me that the cops in the US are more likely to come across an occupant armed with a hand gun. Following that logic in absurdum the cops would not even bother kicking the door down, they would nuke the entire site from orbit. It is the only way to be sure...

 

[ThePurpleStuff]

The hypocrites go out of their way to shut up the people who point it out, but as long as the internet lives we'll find out, you greedy bastards. I'm never buying any music, movies or games from big greedy corps ever again because I'm keeping these business practices alive. I hate it, all my money is going to indie game makers, I'm not interested in buying anything new any more because I hate how music sounds today, movies bore me and gaming is becoming a stupid, pointless chore for legit customers like me. I'm not downloading either, absolutely no money or attention to their products will come from me. This guy did not deserve this, sure he did scam companies out of money, but like loqar said, people in wall st. do it too. Don't just arrest some, arrest them all like you did to him and his whole fucking site. Just shut all of wall st. down and raid it like a disgusting burglar and close it all down despite all the legit business their members had done, did you think about them? No, you assholes. God this copyright shit is pissing me off more every day, I want them to go away and let the internet become the beautiful tool to share info and products it should be.

 

[LZeroK]

Even if he did all that, what relation does it have with the MegaUpload fiasco?

If you don't thing that someone with 7 convictions for spread out over a 20 years period might not indicated a pattern, then I'm Nigerian prince who needs to get money out of the country. All you need do is send me your bank account details ....

Such an astounding way to jump the shark my friend.
I wasn't pointing at wether or not he has a pattern.
I was just saying that what we can see from what have been provided we can not go beyond speculation. Simple as that...

 

[willsham45]

Wow so this basiclly means no one speaks to anyone. Are you telling me the guys who set about shuutting mega upload down never got up and said right guys who in this room uses this survice cause we want it to go.

Secondly what buisness does the U fucking S have with new zealand. The US does not have exculsive rights to .com.

 

[5mj7R7yf4Dwr3gdZyyu9PeGNwYjlNrjzuh3iTXQG]

Wow so this [basically] means no one speaks to anyone. Are you telling me the guys who set about [shutting] mega upload down never got up and said right guys who in this room uses this [service] cause we want it to go[?]

To answer your question... [http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111220/16201117146/ice-admits-that-it-just-wants-to-put-people-jail-with-operation-our-sites.shtml] No. No one asked anything.

It's actually of great concern to us in the US that the people have been disenfranchised for some time now, and we're now seeing visible aspects of this truth. Local precincts are generally more interested in keeping the peace (though they're awfully eager to assault demonstrations), and the specialized departments such as ICE, the DHS, the DEA and the DATFE are really, like our politicians, pawns of the lobbyists.

238U

 

[bobbern]

Well, that's why I keep my important files where they can't get it...outside US and EU...lol...securstor.mk. Plausible deniability...