Megaupload stormed by the FBI

[phoneman]

Originally Posted by Bazzese

Megaupload is shut down, all of the records are now in the hands of the american government, if you ever downloaded a copyrighted file, YOU'RE SCREWED!

VERY IMPORTANT! PROTECT YOURSELF!

Yes, Megaupload has been busted, people arrested, etc.

If someone had uploaded a copyrighted file, how could they protect themselves now? Just wondering what you mean.

[Snowstormbanana]

Originally Posted by phoneman

Yes, Megaupload has been busted, people arrested, etc.

If someone had uploaded a copyrighted file, how could they protect themselves now? Just wondering what you mean.

Well, you probably know about this SOPA/PIPA thing, the thing that started Piracy was actually C-NET, for those who don't know C-NET is a 'search-thingy' hosted by i think CBS, it's also used by microsoft etc etc, from C-NET you could and can still download bitorrent, azerus, kazaa, utorrent, and you used to (not sure if you still can) be able to download directly from their site, without having to leave it COPYRIGHTED music/movies/tv-series! They even had reviews showing you how it was done! Microsoft and a lot of other huge companies invested in thepiratesbay and bitorrent! They encouraged people to download pirate-copied files for over a decade and now they're using it against YOU!

But i don't see these multi-millionaires behind bars, are they above the law because they're so wealthy?

I don't really know what can be done to protect yourself, but starting a law-suit against these companies could be a start, people has to get the word out.

There's not really much to do to protect yourself per say, i don't know why i put that there, i'll edit it out, the point is. While singlemoms and students get imprisoned and sued for a ridicoulus amount of money, the real criminals walk free, what a corrupt world we live in..

[phoneman]

The guys from Megaupload were busted for numerous criminal acts, including money laundering and racketeering.

I have not seen the specific charges, and guess that it is possible all of the charges ultimately come from the copyright issues.

It is actually hard to defend massive copyright infringement. On this board we try to be vigilant about not allowing lenghty clips to be loaded that are currently for sale or are made by active producers who might sell them.

What I mean by lengthy is that one minute out of ten minute clip might be OK, but not the entire clip.

Oh, yes, I know all about SOPA/PIPA, which have died, for the moment at least.

[filmguy]

They are not going after individuals who have uploaded, they're going after the owners for profiting off of piracy.

[Snowstormbanana]

Originally Posted by filmguy

They are not going after individuals who have uploaded, they're going after the owners for profiting off of piracy.

Yeah, you might wanna think so, but i don't think it's quite that simple.

First of all, i think it's totally ridicoulus that because megaupload had one or two servers hosted in the US means they can extradite them to the US, put them in an american court, blabla..

If they're going after the owners that profited off of piracy, oh what's this you can download right from cnet? http://download.cnet.com/windows/p2p...ntBody;sideBar

Oh no? Utorrent, bittorrent, vuze?? Now the big companies that uses CNET, are all against piracy, but then why have they let you download filesharing softward right off of there website for over a decade? If they're going after the people that made money off of piracy, i don't see why they go free?

Easy to download filesharing software..

CBS interactive does not encourage or condone the illegal duplication or distribution of illegal content

Wow, yea it's easy to say that CBS, but then why the heck is it still available through CNET!!

I'm sure you've heard of this story about the student in the UK, who didn't even upload or download any copyright infringed files, he simply just linked to a site with copyrighted material, which isn't even illegal in the UK!! He's getting extradited to USA, to be imprisoned! He just linked to copyright material, CNET have had "tutorials" of how to download copyrighted music and they let you download freaking utorrent and bittorrent right from their site, they're not getting imprisoned, are they? Noo.. But they've done it for over 10 years, the UK student just linked to a site with copyright infringed material!

[Leobor]

[Snowstormbanana]

Now.. What was the point of that post?

[filmguy]

There's nothing illegal about the software itself, because in theory, the software can be used for legal purposes. It's the servers themselves that are problematic. Megaupload was shut down because 98% of their content was copyrighted materials which they directly profited from.

I'm close to the issue, as I'm someone who is directly effected by piracy. A good chunk of my income comes from residuals as well as percentage of DVD/Blu sales. Hollywood has responded to piracy by making less movies, taking less risks, and cutting tons of costs. This has led to me and most of the people I know having significantly less work.

Content isn't free, stealing it hurts people.

[phoneman]

Originally Posted by filmguy

There's nothing illegal about the software itself, because in theory, the software can be used for legal purposes. It's the servers themselves that are problematic. Megaupload was shut down because 98% of their content was copyrighted materials which they directly profited from.

I'm close to the issue, as I'm someone who is directly effected by piracy. A good chunk of my income comes from residuals as well as percentage of DVD/Blu sales. Hollywood has responded to piracy by making less movies, taking less risks, and cutting tons of costs. This has led to me and most of the people I know having significantly less work.

Content isn't free, stealing it hurts people.

My only disagreement with you is that much less than 98% of Megaupload's content was copyrighted materials. A signficant amount was, but not nearly all of it. I have read (in the past two days) that a lot of people (for some odd reason) used Megaupload to transfer large work files and similar completely legal stuff. (I am guessing that Megaupload was free and comparable business oriented sites are not) That material is all gone now that the site is down.

The moral to that story is that if you are using a site for completely legitimate purposes, then do not do it on a server that is not totally clean.

[allffcradles]

Originally Posted by Bazzese

But i don't see these multi-millionaires behind bars, are they above the law because they're so wealthy?

I don't really know what can be done to protect yourself, but starting a law-suit against these companies could be a start, people has to get the word out.

There's not really much to do to protect yourself per say, i don't know why i put that there, i'll edit it out, the point is. While singlemoms and students get imprisoned and sued for a ridicoulus amount of money, the real criminals walk free, what a corrupt world we live in..

Typical of these pathetic governments we live in, punish the ones who can't defend themselves and let the big guys (banks, corporations, dictators) get away with things, at least for a time... They automatically charge people ?100 for not being up to date with submitting tax returns each year but what are they doing to the megarich who aren't paying millions for their taxes? Nothing of course!

$150000 per copyright infringement?! So that's the US gov's way of trying to recover the stupid amount of money they borrow and squander on daft ventures like the 'War on terror'

Anyhow the demise of Megaupload is a mood killer, I came here to satisfy my fetish, back to that!