MegaUpload Shut Down by the Feds, Founder Arrested

All of the one click hosters live off copyright material, since that is the content that will be popular and sell a lot of premium accounts. The beauty of this scheme has been that you can pretend to be the good guy by complying with take-down requests by copyright holders, putting the blame on the users/uploaders. Since you offer a commission for uploaders for premium accounts sold to download the uploaders file and or payments per download, you ensure that uploaders will always want to create mirrors, re-upload, upload new content.

But claims that sites like these cause 500 Million USD in damages to Hollywood are just as shady as the site in question since it is near impossible to measure this.

The real issue is the Movie Studio / Record label business. While these institutions have some advantages for the movie maker, actors etc. and or music artist they might also be a disadvantage for them. I am confident that most if not all of the "lost revenue" these Studios and labels seek from copyright infringers go directly into their pocket instead of the artists pocket....

Louie C.K recently showed everyone that you don't necessarily need the middleman, he sold his stand up perfomance video recording for 5 USD on his site, no DRM, no HBO.
 
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/why-the-feds-smashed-megaupload.ars

The US government dropped a nuclear bomb on "cyberlocker" site Megaupload today, seizing its domain names, grabbing $50 million in assets, and getting New Zealand police to arrest four of the site's key employees, including enigmatic founder Kim Dotcom. In a 72-page indictment unsealed in a Virginia federal court, prosecutors charged that the site earned more than $175 million since its founding in 2005, most of it based on copyright infringement.

As for the site's employees, they were paid lavishly and they spent lavishly. Even the graphic designer, 35-year-old Slovakian resident Julius Bencko, made more than $1 million in 2010 alone.

The indictment goes after six individuals, who between them owned 14 Mercedes-Benz automobiles with license plates such as "POLICE," "MAFIA," "V," "STONED," "CEO," "HACKER," GOOD," "EVIL," and?perhaps presciently?"GUILTY." The group also had a 2010 Maserati, a 2008 Rolls-Royce, and a 1989 Lamborghini. They had not one but three Samsung 83" TVs, and two Sharp 108" TVs. Someone owned a "Predator statue." Motor bikes, jet skis, artwork, and even 60 Dell servers could all be forfeit to the government if it can prove its case against the members of the "Mega Conspiracy."
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In a 2008 chat, one employee noted that "we have a funny business... modern days [sic] pirates :)," to which the reply was, "we're not pirates, we're just providing shipping servies [sic] to pirates :)."
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Dr_Grip said:
If I had up- or downloaded anything from Megaupload I'd get a lawyer now. Kimble most likely has already sold you to the feds.
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If I go to prison for acquiring anime OSTs that are not even fucking sold in this country I'm going to run people down in my car just to give myself a better name in prison...

As if being short and amazingly pretty wasn't enough to make me a prison bitch I got sent down for downloading J-pop...
 
I'm surprised that megaupload lasted as long as it did since, to me, it was one of those "too good to be true" scenarios. It was basically a haven to share anything and everything and it got way too big. Those comments from inside the company don't also help .

I don't like the man and giving power to the fatcats out there, but they can never stop the signal...there are other sites like megaupload and there will always be more. Its when they start getting big and making millions of their own that they invite the g-men
 
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We'd need 180 million lawyers then :lol:

The shipping analogy is fitting, I work in shipping and we can't possibly have any control what our customers use our services for.
 
The real issue is the Movie Studio / Record label business. While these institutions have some advantages for the movie maker, actors etc. and or music artist they might also be a disadvantage for them. I am confident that most if not all of the "lost revenue" these Studios and labels seek from copyright infringers go directly into their pocket instead of the artists pocket....
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Those associations made a lot of sense before the internet and its ability to disseminate information. There used to be a time that the only way to make it was to get signed by a label and get radio rotations. Nowadays you can put your work on YouTube, Facebook, etc... and get known, I mean look at Rebecca Black.
 
Lost revenue is when I steal sausage from grocery store. There is no sausage in the shelf, and I haven't paid for the sausage. Or a DVD/CD. If I copy something, sausage is left in the shelf, but I haven't paid for the copy! So the other bloke can buy the original.
If someone downloads a movie, game or music album, it doesn't mean he'd pay for the DVD/CD if there wasn't the download option. He would live without the movie.
 
The better analogy is a phone. If you use that for 'illegal' purposes (like organising a drug deal) they do not arrest officers of Bell, Verizon or what ever, now do they?
 
Cobol74 said:
The better analogy is a phone. If you use that for 'illegal' purposes (like organising a drug deal) they do not arrest officers of Bell, Verizon or what ever, now do they?
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The legal documents show how the MU people taken into custody had knowledge of infringing content and failed to remove it, they sent links to each other with copyrighted content, they searched their database for specific things, they gave out bonus payments to uploaders despite discussing how they uploaded lots of infringing content.

This is where the analogy with the phone people or delivery companies falls apart. If you see Pat the postman delivering packages of cocaine while knowing they contain cocaine you'd want him to stop delivering the packages, no?

indictment said:
q. On or about December 3, 2006, DOTCOM distributed a Megaupload.com link to a music file entitled ?05-50_cent_feat._mobb_deep-nah-c4.mp3? to ORTMANN. A copy of this file was still present on servers controlled by the Mega Conspiracy as of December 20, 2011.

r. On or about February 5, 2007, VAN DER KOLK sent an e-mail to ORTMANN entitled ?reward payments?. Attached to the e-mail was a text file listing the following proposed reward amounts, the Megaupload.com username, and the content they uploaded:
100 USD [USERNAME DELETED] 10+ Full popular DVD rips (split files), a few small porn movies, some software with key generators (warez)
100 USD [USERNAME DELETED] 5845 files in his account, mainly Vietnamesecontent
100 USD [USERNAME DELETED] Popular DVD rips
100 USD [USERNAME DELETED] Some older DVD rips + unknown (Italian serries?) rar files
1500 USD [USERNAME DELETED] known paid user (vietnamese content)

The last individual received at least $55,000 from the Mega Conspiracy through transfers from PayPal Inc., as part of the ?Uploader Rewards? program.

s. On or about February 11, 2007, VAN DER KOLK sent an e-mail to ORTMANN indicating that ?Kim really wants to copy Youtube one to one.?
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AiR said:
The shipping analogy is fitting, I work in shipping and we can't possibly have any control what our customers use our services for.
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narf said:
This is where the analogy with the phone people or delivery companies falls apart. If you see Pat the postman delivering packages of cocaine while knowing they contain cocaine you'd want him to stop delivering the packages, no?
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These analogies remind me of Cocaine Cowboys more than anything else. These guys did only the transportation of drugs. They weren't selling, they weren't using, just transportation. That being said, they were fully aware of what they were transporting so they ended up busted and spent several years in prison. Megaupload was also fully aware of what has been "transported" through their system and even encouraged illegal activity with bonuses for uploaders.
 
Cobol74 said:
The better analogy is a phone. If you use that for 'illegal' purposes (like organising a drug deal) they do not arrest officers of Bell, Verizon or what ever, now do they?
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narf said:
This is where the analogy with the phone people or delivery companies falls apart. If you see Pat the postman delivering packages of cocaine while knowing they contain cocaine you'd want him to stop delivering the packages, no?
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Yep, that's the point. I cases like hotfile or rapidshare the phone analogy works. But MegaUpload is a different kind of animal.

As I pointed out, Kimble used the same business model back in the BBS days, so I am not exactly surprised.
 
Speaking of piracy, the greatest nonsense in the world is here, in Latvia. We have a burreau called AKKA/LAA (some sort of RIAA clone) and they charge a tax of every storage device (HDDs, SDs, USB flash drives etc etc), because there is possibility that these devices could be used for storing copyrighted material.
Logic says that when the tax is payed, we should get all music for free. And yet, we have to pay for them.

And don't get me started on how they are responsible for not getting Spotify, Netflix and other services here.
 
pepitko said:
These analogies remind me of Cocaine Cowboys more than anything else. These guys did only the transportation of drugs. They weren't selling, they weren't using, just transportation. That being said, they were fully aware of what they were transporting so they ended up busted and spent several years in prison. Megaupload was also fully aware of what has been "transported" through their system and even encouraged illegal activity with bonuses for uploaders.
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Additionally, they used the "cocaine" they were transporting as well.
 
neutron said:
Speaking of piracy, the greatest nonsense in the world is here, in Latvia. We have a burreau called AKKA/LAA (some sort of RIAA clone) and they charge a tax of every storage device (HDDs, SDs, USB flash drives etc etc), because there is possibility that these devices could be used for storing copyrighted material.
Logic says that when the tax is payed, we should get all music for free. And yet, we have to pay for them.

And don't get me started on how they are responsible for not getting Spotify, Netflix and other services here.
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Our version is called Copyswede, a private organisation that have the remarkable peculiarity of being able to collect taxes. More votes for the pirate party would change that however.
 
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Well, what Megaupload apparently did its business like this:
10 people upload a copyrighted file: It was hash checked and only one physical copy remained. They still gave out the 10 different links to it.
If they received a takedown notice, they take down the provided link and not the file... Since this practice involves them knowing there is still a copy around, they will get them for this, I think.
Also, they proved that they have the technical capabilities to remove the files and its duplicates, since they did it with child pornography...

So, a little difference to rapidshare, but one that'll probably make them go to jail...

I do however have a problem with the arrest of a german in NewZealand on a US warrant, at least on a copyright thingy...
 
Filesonic Kills File-Sharing Service After MegaUpload Arrests
Filesonic, one of the Internet?s leading cyberlocker services, has taken some drastic measures following the Megaupload shutdown and arrests last week. In addition to discontinuing its affiliates rewards program and not yet paying accrued money to members, the site has disabled all sharing functionality, leaving users only with access to their own files.

To users of systems like BitTorrent, file-sharing means just that ? the sharing of files with others. But this weekend users of Filesonic, one of the Internet?s leading cyberlocker services, sharing files is currently a thing of the past.

According to a shock announcement by the site, all file-sharing functionality has now been disabled, leaving current users only with access to files that they have personally uploaded. Many hundreds of thousands (probably millions) of links all around the web have now been rendered useless, at least temporarily.

But the bad news for the site?s users doesn?t end there. In the last few hours, before file-sharing was disabled, Filesonic also ended its rewards program, meaning that uploaders to the site no longer earn money when people download their files. A moot point perhaps, since no-one will be downloading files anyway.

However, there is the matter of what will happen to the reward money that was sitting in uploader?s accounts before the rewards program was discontinued. Will it be paid out, or will it simply disappear? Many users fear the latter.


No File-Sharing at Filesonic


This combination of news all adds up to a pretty big deal. Filesonic isn?t just some also-ran in the world of cyberlockers. The site is among the top 10 file-sharing sites on the Internet, with a quarter billion page views a month.

While there has been no official explanation from the site as to why the above actions were taken, all eyes are turned towards events of the last week ? the closure of Megaupload and the arrest of its founder and management team.

Like Megaupload, Filesonic appears to based in Hong Kong and it?s clear that the authorities there already worked with the US government to shut down Kim Dotcom?s operations and seize his assets there. Filesonic is also believed to have some US-based servers.

In December, Filesonic announced it had partnered with Vobile, a provider of content identification services. All uploads to the service were said to be being checked for copyright infringement before users were able to share them publicly, although it is unclear if this system was ever implemented by the site.

The events of the last week have turned the cyberlocker world upside down and there is quite literally panic among users and site operators. Stay tuned for our detailed report tomorrow ? the Megaupload takedown appears to be a game-changer.
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Link to original article http://torrentfreak.com/filesonic-kills-file-sharing-after-megaupload-arrests-120122/

Back to torrents and ed2k I guess.
 
Damn, good that I've decided against a lifetime premium account on Filesonic and went for a 6 month one instead.
 
This thread needs a soundtrack. Fortunately, the Kimble provides. Includes Diddy and William, a man with golden teeth, a whore and the Kimblenator.

[video=youtube;o0Wvn-9BXVc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0Wvn-9BXVc[/video]
 
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