The US government has shut down top file hosting service Megaupload and had its founder arrested on suspicion of causing $500 million in lost revenue to content sellers.
The Megaupload sites were managed through an international network of companies, head-quartered in Hong Kong.
Although not a US company and not managed from the US, the fact that it maintained US servers and supplied millions of US visitors with illegal downloads was considered ample legal grounds for the federal government to move against it.
The indictments centre on German millionaire hacker Kim Schmitz, or “Kimble,” who has led a colourful and exceptionally crooked career centred on computer crime and fraud, having been convicted at various times and in various countries of credit card fraud, insider trading and embezzlement, making him a less than savoury poster child for Internet liberties.
The US government claims that in 2010 alone he made some $42 million from piracy-related activities.
He was reportedly arrested at his “$30 million” mansion in New Zealand, pending extradition to the US to face trial.
5 other less interesting Megaupload executives have been indicted, of whom 3 have already been arrested. All of those indicted were citizens of various European countries and resided either in Europe, Hong Kong or New Zealand.
Strangely, Megaupload’s American CEO and noted rapper Swizz Beatz is apparently not named in the indictments.
Megaupload was still protesting its total innocence and holding out for a “dialogue” with copyright holders up until the moment its site was taken offline:
“The fact is that the vast majority of Mega’s Internet traffic is legitimate, and we are here to stay. If the content industry would like to take advantage of our popularity, we are happy to enter into a dialogue. We have some good ideas. Please get in touch.”
Megaupload had in recent years begun trying to legitimise itself by soliciting various mysterious endorsements from famous US celebrities, efforts which evidently proved futile.
Whilst no objective statistics exist as to just how much of the content hosted on Megaupload’s servers was legitimate (Megaupload asserts the “vast majority” was legitimate whilst its attackers maintain the exact opposite), any honest evaluation would probably have to conclude that the main reason for its popularity was that torrents are a hassle, and that the vast majority of the material it hosted was less than legitimate.
The arrests come only a day after high profile protests by various other top websites over newly proposed US laws designed to grant copyright holders greater powers to police the Internet.
Both of the proposed laws now appear to be in some difficulty, but there is much speculation that the timing of the arrests is intended to be symbolic.
However, as the Megaupload arrests all took place using current laws, they have not only further inflamed Internet opinion against SOPA, PIPA and the major copyright lobbies behind them, but have also apparently demonstrated that US copyright holders are quite able to launch crippling legal attacks on internationally managed sites using only existing laws.
Megaupload’s eventual fate remains unclear – the fate of piracy-related sites in similar positions has varied greatly, from those that apparently sustained all legal assaults unscathed (such as The Pirate Bay) and others which successfully sold out to copyright holders, to those whose business models simply collapsed under a hail of litigation and criminal charges.
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Gah, megaporn's gone too Σ(゜д゜;)
the time when we could only fap to youtube's breastfeeding videos nears.
Time to stock up on porn.
I got my mini hentai collection ready to go, I dunno who the character designer is for Oni Chichi but damn it man that man is a god, I love his design on the DFC girls he does :D
Anyone else know of any other titles s/he may have done? :O
Way ahead of you man. I've been hoarding the stuff like a pack rat for years. When the time comes, I'll be that one guy who has it all.
with SOPA around, i doubt that will stay long enough...
@ long text: SOPA is NOT a good thing. You must be either brain damaged or have a serious mental illness.
you bastard... you want to martyrize our lolis...
Even if SOPA try to go after people who pirated movies in any country you think preventing one person is going to stop it?
What the hell is wrong with you Kokori?
I kind of understand what you're talking about but if SOPA/PIPA/OPEN take effect it will be a long time before they're taken down if at all.
SOPA is actually a good thing though. The heavier the damage the better. Or maybe I'm too optimistic....
This is the scenario I am hoping for:
Right now, we already HAVE censorship on the net. And Washington already controls important services of the net. Smaller-Scale censorship like it could be the case with lolicon is actually widely accepted, as we know.
Now... maybe the net NEEDS a big 'BOOM!' situation with heavy casualties. If SOPA could provide that chance I'd be more than happy. A lot of people can't even imagine a life without youtube and Co. anymore.
So the consequence could be that we/you US folk could revoke SOPA after heavy protests. The way I see it, no one could attack lolicon or the freedom of the net anymore, for this incident would be burned in our minds.
But again.. this is only a hypothetical and optimistic scenario.
>and please stop being smart-ass
No. I'll continue to comment and discuss. That's why this function was invented.
It will be interesting to see if New Zealand actually turns him in. It's very unlikely though.
you're right, about it's being hypothetical
and please stop being smart-ass
Is nothing sacred?
Finally! He sucked BIG TIME doing DDoS if you go over 100Mbps on download.
i get 3.5mbps
What the hell are you talking about?
CraP I can see the end of over 75% of my Internet usage gone D:
spankwire is ok for now dude...
RUN BEFORE FBI'S CHINESE CAUGHT YOU !
spankwire is ok for now dude...
RUN BEFORE FBI'S CHINESE CAUGHT YOU !
oh great you are right
NOOOOOOOOOOO! not megaporn damn you USA damn you.
Indeed. They are going to cause world war 3.
Wha--- that can't be righ-- lets see
*bookmark, Mega--
NooooooOOOooooOOOOoo000!
There's always youporn dude ^_^
fuck that, I need mine in HD!
then watch 4tube
No shit, Sherlock. Most "Mega" sites that feature some form of file sharing were owned/made by the Megaupload owners.
Proof that SOPA/PIPA are unnecessary. They're ambiguously worded tools to be exploited.
They're not yet convicted. So no proof. Yet.
this had NOTHING to do with SOPA. Research
...do you not know how to read you?
he's saying SOPA is not needed. jesus fucking tards.
It took months of work by dozens of people at the DoJ (in other words, a fuckton of money) to get a site shut down. With SOPA, it would just take a phone call. Therefore, the content industry will still claim SOPA is necessary.
I've read it. It doesn't bother me but I am very antipiracy. Probably more so than most of the people on this site.
Well, it is tough for us in the developing world to get access to entertainment. So, at least for us, it is quite tough to think about a world without Megaupload. I mean, it is pretty fair to pay to get access to the shows that I want to see, but people should have in mind that in poor countries like mine, DDL and torrent are the only ways to get access to entertainment.
"Hello, Mr. Movie Maker, i came from a poor country, and it gives me the right of watching your movie without paying because i barely have money for my food!"
Falos mean Fallus in spanish ;)
? No one is implying SOPA is needed. . Dumbasses can understand SOPA is bad when someone tells them, but they can't tell when someone is saying it's bad if they need to read it.
>implying SOPA is needed
that's exactly what falos is saying. there is no need for SOPA/PIPA because laws are already in place to deal with IP theft. Read
Sadly all a nuke will do is quickly turn the world into a radioactive mess as america retaliaites withs the 40000 nukes is has in storage.
OH FOR GOD SAKE JUST NUKE AMERICA-WASHINGTON DC THEN PROBLEM SOLVE!
GET A PETITION TO SIGN AND SEND TO NOKOR AND IRAN!
Dumbass, he's saying that the Government doesn't have to come up with retarded laws to combat piracy, its completely possible for them to do so with current laws.
USA doesn't even have the Guts to go after China over copyright infigments and piracy they did for decades long ago.But they have the balls to go after a single person who has nothing to do with them.
It's clear they can circumvent anything they have in strict writing though. Also, a lot of international copyright laws are not always publicly available. A new anti-piracy online law for the international trade they're writing up is still shrouded in secrecy compared to SOPA/PIPA.
Not ,but once approved the U.S. gov can disable sites around the globe!
Now who gave this power to them?
And other Governments will leave this blank?
It was a demonstration of force of FBI and a warning that he can and nobody has the power to prevent!!
This proves how much are arrogant and don't have any respect with the rest of the world..
What the heck are you talking about? U.S. doesn't have any control over sites that are not based in their counrty.
That's how MegaUpload was taken out they had servers in the States
They can ask others Governments to take it down just like they can ask that criminals be extradite by those governments don't have to comply
And for that you think are willing to approve pipa & sopa?
Not only megaup but also filesonic (closed to share files)
Besides what makes you think that other Governments will not accept this precedent to profit even more with taxes?
Outside the bribe of estudios to local politics :P
Fuck FBI, Fuck the Goverment of USA
This is what every Japanese, Chinese, Filipinos and Canadians should say every day. Bravo! :)
While we're at it FUCK the Jap government too...
AND the Chinese bullshit system AND the Canadian system as well.
You people are FUCKING TARDS if you actually believe that the U.S government is the ONLY one that does this type of shit!
Actually, in Canada, they don't even have a DMCA equivalent despite significant pressure from the MAFIAAs. I have no idea about Japan, but China is known to be very lax about enforcing copyright infringement.
Compare that to the US government which thinks that they have juridical authority on foreign citizens residing on foreign territory. If you do something perfectly legal in your country, the US could have you extradicted and sentenced for it. If they want you strong enough, then you better hope your local government has the balls to tell them to fuck off.
@14:44
Stealing peoples work and making money off of it isn't creating jobs.
@02:26
>implying big business wants a market with less competition to force the average salary down
>implying big business cares about the common man
>implying big business does not steal ideas & works from others too, while using their clout to avoid legal repercussions
you're a fucking idiot
To be entirely fair, the fact that he's making money off of this is why they did anything. If he wasn't making money off other peoples work not paying them for it this would not have happened. This is the sort of piracy that the US government wants to stop. I don't think they'd care if people weren't making money off piracy.
job creators is what the us is looking for right?
THen why the hell are they cracking down on this bs.
Don't forget the French
Basically, it's 99.9% of the world that wants us all dead. Hell, I live in California and I think we should break apart from the Union. If Ron Paul isn't elected President, Americans are literally going to turn against each other. And I may lead a California independence movement by declaring California a sovereign nation and annexing Nevada.
wait! so John Titor was correct?
Fuck California; bunch of pseudo environmentalists & smug douchebags
cali is a joke. place is loaded full of more douche bags than a douche bag making factory.
The problem is, California is part of the problem with the US, if you didnt notice, the two senators from california are co-sponsors of SOPA and PIPA, as well as almost every congressman from california.
The MPAA and RIAA are headquartered out of California.
California splitting off would be against their interests, and you could bet the farm if the feds decided to tell the MPAA and RIAA to fuck off, they would push for California to break off.
Also given how corrupt the California state govt is, breaking off would mean very bad things for the citizens. Then of course, Mexico would take advantage of a weakened state and bumrush it from the south. Mexico or one of the Cartels south of the border that would love some new land.
Plus the feds would also go to war because of the Port of Los Angeles, where almost all imports from the east come through, and San francisco, which is another major port. San Diego is a key naval port as well.
California breaking off even in fantasy is a bad idea.
It's a pivotal state. The thing that gives us a little more sway than most states is that we have such a large economy in California, not to mention the largest population of any urban centers in the US (we have more people living in california than most countries have citizens)
If we had the population of a flyover state, and the economic power of one, we'd be more inclined to try to break away, or we'd be under the thumbs of the feds much more than we are now (hence why we dont have national ID cards here, california called the feds on their bluff about taking away interstate funding.)
viva colombiaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
también colombianos
California, it's if anyone BUT Obama is elected that people are going to riot.
Ron Paul is another libertarian asshole with ideas that would not work in the real world.
Y en México como quieren chingar con eso de los derechos de autor... vale madre.
Queda claro que no hay pais perfecto... Pero unos si que se pasan de malparidos
no te olvides de Venezuela
FUCK CALIFORNIA! If the Red Hot Chilli Peppers make another goddamn song/album/anything that references CA I'm going to recommend they be the first to be prosecuted under the NDA act. You California-philes are almost as bad as Texanophiles. Just because you're in a "popular" state doesn't make you special.
...oh, and fuck Ron Paul too. He's not the savior people make him out to be. As the late, great George Carlin said "Garbage in, garbage out. It's not the politicians who suck, it's the public."
Actually fuck CIA, worst than SATAN, including Pentagon!