[UPDATE] Feds Take Down Megaupload

Therumancer

Citation Needed
Nov 28, 2007
9,909
0
0
shiajun said:
Thank you! It took several pages of posts, but I finally got to someone who also sees that the other charges are quite more severe than copyright infringement and are more likely the cause of this mess. However, I still have a very uneasy feeling of the United States seizing assests in other countries, run by people who aren't US citizens. Since the press releases don't seem to mention other police agencies involved in the raid it seems like an extreme violation of international law. Also, I'm still wondering what happens with the money lost by all those users who paid for a legitimate use of the service that was essentially obliterated due to some unsavory use by some of its employees. I'm also sure that this took court orders, and why removing such a provision with SOPA is not a good idea.

EDIT: some mixed info I'm getting. While Megaupload was based in Hong Kong, where the servers in the US or not? If in the US, maybe the jurisdiction is in place, but still iffy. If not....WTF? Also, the data on the servers is not all illegal and at the moment people don't have access to their rightful property. Is that even legal in the US?

Well, your addressing a couple of differant issues here.

When it comes to the US policing the world, and taking action against non-US citizens that is ultimatly the bottom line. In the end this comes down to a situation where the nations violating patents and copyrights do so by not acknowleging those laws within their country so no crime is beging comitted. A lot of nations that innovate very little on their own and thus have no real stake in protecting copyrights (ie they simply take from others, with nothing of their own they want defended internationally) and benefit from running their "robber economies". Really the only way to stop this is to make them stop through the direct application of force.

This ultimatly means that things like SOPA are irrelevent because nations that already ignore the existing laws and policies are going to continue to ignore the current one, unless of course the US uses force to turn it's laws into international policy. This goes beyond police action and into military action, as your not going to send the police into other countries to collect people who haven't committed crimes there.

The bottom line is that SOPA makes a show about being about international issues, but really it's a domestic power grab. To solve these issues internationally isn't a matter of laws and policy making, it's about all of the horrible things everyone prefers to avoid thinking about. A lot of politicians pushing SOPA probably do so in order to make it look like they are doing something, without having to actually push for starting a huge international war for economic reasons. In the end it comes down to needing to force people to do things that aren't in their best interests, for our best interests... or pretty much business as usual and why the world sucks.

The big question with SOPA is how many people see anything but the smoke and mirrors it is internationally, and what it actually means as far as domestic power grabs go.

In general, I do not take any bureaucratic solution to this issue seriously. In the final equasion anything the goverment does short of threaten or prepare for war is meaningless because internationally the problem exists because the nations and cultures that represent a problem could care less what the US thinks.

As far as the rest goes, your dealing with the issue of digital property in general. Right now nobody has wanted to address the situation of value of electronic items and property and the protection of consumer rights. How to protect the property of customers if the goverment goes after a company that provides such things and knocks it out of business is tricky.

Of course there IS the connected issue of how those dealing with digital property argue that the consumber doesn't own anything, and instead are purchusing a liscence to use something, which they can revoke or change at any given time. So basically your paying to play with one of their toys as long as they happen to feel like it.

If the goverment nails a company that sells virtual goods and takes them out of business, right now I think the issue is one where since everything belonged to the company, legally speaking the people on the receiving end aren't losing anything.

Speaking for myself I personally believe that every digital product or service should have to be backed up by a trust fund. A trust being a huge pile of money which generates interest and grows and only let's people withdraw money off of the interest (in simple terms). Rich people use these things for their irresponsible children and such to ensure they will be provided for without bankrupting themselves. Certain charities run on trusts and distribute the yearly interest into whatever cause they are based around.

The point here being that to run something like say STEAM, GoG, or an MMORPG that involves microtransactions, there should be a legal requirement that there is a trust behind the business to keep the virtual properties availible indefinatly. So basically if 50 years down the road STEAM is a distant memory that trust kept my games alive so if as an Octogenerian I pull out an antique computer and decide I want to play one of my old games in a nursing home I can.

Likewise I look at what happened with Star Wars Galaxies, and find the entire situation rather unacceptable. MMOs require a lot of time and energy investment, and an attached trust means that even after a company might cease charging money for a product it will continue to exist and the accounts and accomplishments tied to them become eternal for all intents and purposes.

In cases where due to criminal actions a game must be taken down or a company put out of business, the trust which would be considered seperate from the company's assets would then be distributed among those who owned virtual property, with shares proportional to their investment.

In some ways it's vaguely like the old gold standard for money, virtual property needing to be backed up with actual money to ensure it's continued existance if nothing else. A decent trust can keep servers running and people working on them long after the demise of the guys who set up a game or whatever.
 

MasochisticAvenger

New member
Nov 7, 2011
331
0
0
I just love how so many people are jumping to MegaUpload's defense by claiming some people used it legitimately. Come on, we all know ninety percent of the content on MegaUpload was copyrighted material. Who are we trying to kid here?
 

samaugsch

New member
Oct 13, 2010
595
0
0
MasochisticAvenger said:
I just love how so many people are jumping to MegaUpload's defense by claiming some people used it legitimately. Come on, we all know ninety percent of the content on MegaUpload was copyrighted material. Who are we trying to kid here?
Try explaining that to the people who seem to claim it's the other way around.
 

asinann

New member
Apr 28, 2008
1,602
0
0
ZeZZZZevy said:
What I don't think is posted here but is really ridiculous is that if found guilty, these people will be facing a 55 year sentence.

That's right. 55 YEARS
The vast majority of which come from money laundering and RICO (the things used to nail mob bosses)act charges like conspiracy to commit money laundering.
 

Gindil

New member
Nov 28, 2009
1,621
0
0
MasochisticAvenger said:
I just love how so many people are jumping to MegaUpload's defense by claiming some people used it legitimately. Come on, we all know ninety percent of the content on MegaUpload was copyrighted material. Who are we trying to kid here?
No one. But I guess the real criminals are the artists that liked the Megabox [http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120120/15060817494/busta-rhymes-backs-megaupload-says-record-labels-are-real-criminals.shtml].