Feds Shutter Megaupload, Arrest Executives

[Dermot7]

Megaupload, the popular file-sharing site, was shuttered Thursday and its executives indicted by the Justice Department in what the authorities said was “among the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States.”

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/201...ted-shuttered/

+ http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/n...r-arrested.ars

[funkydude]

So much for needing SOPA

[Cudni]

and another article
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...LEFTTopStories

to all intents and purposes it is down

[Cudni]

ot posts removed.

[Hungry Man]

Let me rephrase...

how does the US have the ability to arrest citizens of other countries, in other countries, and then take down a site hosted in another country?

[Cudni]

Originally Posted by Hungry Man

Let me rephrase...

how does the US have the ability to arrest citizens of other countries, in other countries, and then take down a site hosted in another country?

very simple, through various co-operation treaties that are in place between the countries mentioned (from 2nd posted link)
"..
The FBI worked with authorities from New Zealand, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Canada, Germany, the UK and the Phillipines, and in concert with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement on the case.
.."

[ronjor]

Question: What if the alleged infringement happens outside of the U.S.?

Answer: International rules including the TRIPs Agreement and the Berne Convention allow the U.S. to enforce its copyright rules under local laws in over 100 participating nations.

https://www.chillingeffects.org/piracy/faq.cgi

[m00nbl00d]

I'll say this once: The rest of the world really needs to stop caring about what the United States thinks of what is illegal or what isn't illegal. One of these days, no one will be able to smoke Cuban cigars outside of the United States, and you'll be arrested.

If it was the other way around, I have high doubts that the United States would think like the rest of the world... Oh, wait... they don't.

-edit-

So, they simply managed to shut down a legal service, abused by pirates. Well done. Well... shut down all search engines, as without these 99% of people won't be able to get anything. Not a simple solution, because no one would be able to search anything, but it would be effective.

[Dermot7]

Just a few weeks ago, MegaUpload founder Kim Dotcom told TorrentFreak that his Mega ventures have nothing to worry about, as they operate within the rules of the law.

“Mega has nothing to fear. Our business is legitimate and protected by the DMCA and similar laws around the world. We work with the best lawyers and play by the rules.

“We take our legal obligations seriously. Mega’s war chest is full and we have strong supporters backing us,” Dotcom said.

https://torrentfreak.com/megaupload-shut-down-120119/

[Hungry Man]

This is actually very annoying... I kept quite a lot of (legal) content on MegaUpload including some old revisions of programs I'd compiled and even some pictures. The government just blocked my access to those...

[3x0gR13N]

Hacktivists with the collective Anonymous are waging an attack on the website for the White House after successfully breaking the sites for the Department of Justice, Universal Music Group, RIAA and Motion Picture Association of America.
In response to today’s federal raid on the file sharing service Megaupload, hackers with the online collective Anonymous have broken the websites for the Department of Justice, Universal Music Group, RIAA and Motion Picture Association of America.

https://rt.com/usa/news/anonymous-do...rsal-sopa-235/

[noone_particular]

In response to today’s federal raid on the file sharing service Megaupload, hackers with the online collective Anonymous have broken the websites for the Department of Justice, Universal Music Group, RIAA and Motion Picture Association of America.

Good aim without their usual collateral damage.

[zfactor]

sopa or pipa they will still control us all... people think they will will win a war by getting sopa thrown out think again they just proved they can do whatever they want anyway no matter sopa or pipa

[Hungry Man]

https://act.demandprogress.org/lette...OcBm9&rd=1&t=4

Petition.

Originally Posted by Hungry Man

This is actually very annoying... I kept quite a lot of (legal) content on MegaUpload including some old revisions of programs I'd compiled and even some pictures. The government just blocked my access to those...

Yeah, I hear ya. I kept a few files, legit of course, there as well

~~LWM: off-topic comment removed~~

[zfactor]

i used it OFTEN to store things i didnt want to carry with me then i could download them on site like tools, copies of free av's for customers etc all legit.. this simply sucks

[Hungry Man]

I compiled PCSX2 for a forum. Takes quite a lot of time to bugfix and upload and compiling took an hour for the enhanced builds. I put it on MU. Oh well.

[AlexC]

USA starts looking like China and Russia...

Anyway i can block all american IP's ?

(just kidding, so far...)

[Baserk]

^Mmm, not so sure, I can almost hear champagne corks popping in Moscow and St.Petersburg.
Seems like this action pretty much restricts big uploading sites from having any presence in the US, Western Europe and Aussie/Kiwi territory.
Companies like f.i. Dutch Leaseweb are likely to lose such customers fast now.
All MU data hosted on such servers is probably gone forever, like indeed perfectly legal files I uploaded to MU but obviously I'm not the only one...misery loves company

[Tarnak]

They can't take down crooks that use the internet to steal, but certain business interests can get the powers that be to take down websites.


"Is it justice or you that is blind
When you don't see it coming, how come?" - from the song "There's A Rhythm" by Ron Sexmith

[noone_particular]

When you consider that all of the parties providing "facts" have an agenda of their own, it's hard to tell what is really true.

Back on topic and some food for thought. A lot of people complained about the collateral damage done by groups like Anonymous when they attacked something. Here we have an example of government and business doing just as much collateral damage. I store a few tools on upload sites for those occasions when I need access to them, like an unexpected PC service. Fortunately they weren't on Megaupload. This should make anyone who stores data or apps on cloud servers rethink that choice. Time to finish setting up my own server.

[funkydude]

Originally Posted by Hungry Man

https://act.demandprogress.org/lette...OcBm9&rd=1&t=4

Petition.

I don't think those kind of petitions ever get anywhere.

Originally Posted by wat0114

Yeah, I hear ya. I kept a few files, legit of course, there as well

I moved my files to SkyDrive several months back and have been using it without issues. The reason was SkyDrive is a far safer bet, with MS investing so much into it and the rest of their cloud services, they can't just shut the entire business down like they can with a sole website like MegaUpload.

[Zyrtec]

I guess it's just matter of time before they also come after Rapidshare, Mediafire, et al



Thanks

Originally Posted by funkydude

I moved my files to SkyDrive several months back and have been using it without issues. The reason was SkyDrive is a far safer bet, with MS investing so much into it and the rest of their cloud services, they can't just shut the entire business down like they can with a sole website like MegaUpload.

I'll check it out. Thanks for the tip, funkydude

[m00nbl00d]

Originally Posted by wat0114

I'll check it out. Thanks for the tip, funkydude

Go ahead... put your data on U.S hands... go ahead... That way, they won't need Canada's cooperation.