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Megaupload Raid and how it relates to Appleinsider

post #1 of 14
1/20/12 at 5:20pm
Thread Starter 
Some of you may be aware that the file sharing service Megaupload was raided, closed, and the billionaire owner and staff arrested.

I'll assume you all know what Megaupload was.

It's very clear that the service facilitated piracy and copyright violation. So most people wouldn't find the arrests unexpected.

But the way I see it, these arrests can't stick as long as the defense shows that all effort was made to remove content as soon as it's reported. These are the restrictions of the DMCA. The owner and staff will walk and the site will go back online.

And that's exactly what the government wants.

The government wants to make a case for SOPA and PIPA. They want to show that without these new laws, we can't stop sites like MU from operating, but with these measures in place, it's easy to shut this type of site down. Combine that with the porn connection, and the public in general will tend to agree with the government's position.

But what about the side effects?

Let's say someone here posts a copyrighted work, like a photo of Marissa Miller with an iPod strategically placed on her nude body. The copyright is owned by Sports Illustrated.



Even if the site administrators act quickly to take the offending image offline, under SOPA and PIPA, that doesn't matter. Kaspar and the site owners can be arrested and charged. This site can be shut down. It doesn't matter that the image is actually hosted on another site. It is served by the AI servers, and that's enough to get them according to SOPA.

It gets even worse.

Let's say someone sends a URL to the location of a copyrighted work through AI's instant messaging system. Without spying on our "private" messages, Kaspar et al can't even know a violation was made. It doesn't matter whether they can know or not. The URL was served using the AI servers. Arrests possible. site could be closed.

This is the end of the Internet, folks. The only way to comply wi SOPA and PIPA would be to stop users from posting any information at all. No more messaging. No more image posting. No more forums. No more Internet.

But don't be surprised when Megaupload goes back online soon and all charges are dropped. It's all part of the plan.

An aside... With all that money, don't you think the guy could hire a full-time personal trainer and nutritionist? Damn.



Oops. Another copyright violation. Sorry, Kaspar! Hope you don't get arrested.
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post #2 of 14
1/20/12 at 5:36pm
  • BR
  • Justified Arrogance
As much as I agree with you about SOPA & PIPA and their awful implications...

Megaupload, though it had many legitimate users, fucked itself. They only deleted links to the files when they got DMCA takedown notices, but kept the copyrighted material on their servers. In fact, if someone uploaded a duplicate file, MU wouldn't keep both files but rather have two separate links point to the same file. If a DMCA takedown notice was issued for a specific link, only that one link was taken down but the other would remain active. Finally, the idiots there emailed each other admitting they had copyrighted materials, sharing their favorites. I don't know that they are going to skate on these charges like you think they will.

 

“The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.” 
-Sagan
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“The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.” 
-Sagan
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post #3 of 14
1/20/12 at 5:38pm
It's highly unlikely that any reasonable sites like AI who aren't raking in big bucks from copyright infringements would have anything to worry about.

One good thing to come from this so far is that it shows how the repubs here who are often proclaiming the moral high ground, are really just common thieves.

Oh, and long may megaupload serve behind bars. No pun intended.

"If your enemies cannot find a flaw in your reasoning, they will find it in your reputation".

~ William Hazlitt

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"If your enemies cannot find a flaw in your reasoning, they will find it in your reputation".

~ William Hazlitt

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post #4 of 14
1/20/12 at 5:41pm
  • BR
  • Justified Arrogance
Copyright infringement is not theft. I wish the folks that broke into my house last year had only copyright infringed my guitar and television--I'd still have my originals and wouldn't have had to replace them.

 

“The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.” 
-Sagan
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“The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.” 
-Sagan
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post #5 of 14
1/20/12 at 5:42pm
  • BR
  • Justified Arrogance
Quote:
Originally Posted by tonton View Post

An aside... With all that money, don't you think the guy could hire a full-time personal trainer and nutritionist? Damn.

With all that money, he didn't need to--I'm sure he was able to get plenty of girls in a very quid pro quo situation. You know, similar to how Newt keeps scoring wives.

 

“The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.” 
-Sagan
Reply

 

“The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.” 
-Sagan
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post #6 of 14
1/20/12 at 5:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BR View Post

Copyright infringement is not theft. I wish the folks that broke into my house last year had only copyright infringed my guitar and television--I'd still have my originals and wouldn't have had to replace them.

Try telling that to all the artists and companies who lose millions. Annually an estimated $56 billion is lost. Maybe if they banged some of you piraters up you might drop these feable excuses.

Here's megaupload-

"The five-count indictment, which alleges copyright infringement as well as conspiracy to commit money laundering and racketeering, described a site designed specifically to reward users who uploaded pirated content for sharing, and turned a blind eye to requests from copyright holders to remove copyright-protected files.

For instance, users received cash bonuses if they uploaded content popular enough to generate massive numbers of downloads, according to the indictment. Such content was almost always copyright protected, the indictment said."
~ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1218693.html

"If your enemies cannot find a flaw in your reasoning, they will find it in your reputation".

~ William Hazlitt

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"If your enemies cannot find a flaw in your reasoning, they will find it in your reputation".

~ William Hazlitt

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post #7 of 14
1/20/12 at 5:59pm
Thread Starter 
The problem isn't that sites like AI probably won't have a problem, but that under the law they could.

And Hands, you do understand that the dollar value of all the pirated material isn't even a fraction of actual losses to copyright holders, right?

And yes, the guy is scum.
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post #8 of 14
1/20/12 at 6:05pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tonton View Post

The problem isn't that sites like AI probably won't have a problem, but that under the law they could.

And Hands, you do understand that the dollar value of all the pirated material isn't even a fraction of actual losses to copyright holders, right?

And yes, the guy is scum.

It has to be a fraction, what that fraction actually is, is probably a lot higher than you'd like to think. It's jobs on the line. I personally, especially now with my new business, wouldn't have a hope in hell of making any money without copyright laws. Their vital, and produce jobs. I can testify to that.

"If your enemies cannot find a flaw in your reasoning, they will find it in your reputation".

~ William Hazlitt

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"If your enemies cannot find a flaw in your reasoning, they will find it in your reputation".

~ William Hazlitt

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post #9 of 14
1/20/12 at 6:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tonton View Post

Some of you may be aware that the file sharing service Megaupload was raided, closed, and the billionaire owner and staff arrested.

I'll assume you all know what Megaupload was.

It's very clear that the service facilitated piracy and copyright violation. So most people wouldn't find the arrests unexpected.

I'm not completely familiar with Megaupload but I do find it a bit strange that someone so rich would expose themselves to so much liability.

Quote:
But the way I see it, these arrests can't stick as long as the defense shows that all effort was made to remove content as soon as it's reported. These are the restrictions of the DMCA. The owner and staff will walk and the site will go back online.

And that's exactly what the government wants.

Well there is still what the people want and I'd go a step farther and argue that if the people were allowed to define copyright it would probably last no longer than 25 years. If you haven't been able to earn a living off of it in that timeframe, then the compelling interest for the public domain outweighs the earnings at that point.

Quote:
The government wants to make a case for SOPA and PIPA. They want to show that without these new laws, we can't stop sites like MU from operating, but with these measures in place, it's easy to shut this type of site down. Combine that with the porn connection, and the public in general will tend to agree with the government's position.

I think the public made themselves very clear on SOPA and PIPA. The public in general has no interest in extending copyright protection to some absurd level. Nor do they care for the arcane, archaic and artificial tiers (Theater, PPV, Premium channel, DVD, etc) that content providers foist upon us.

Quote:
But what about the side effects?

Let's say someone here posts a copyrighted work, like a photo of Marissa Miller with an iPod strategically placed on her nude body. The copyright is owned by Sports Illustrated.



Even if the site administrators act quickly to take the offending image offline, under SOPA and PIPA, that doesn't matter. Kaspar and the site owners can be arrested and charged. This site can be shut down. It doesn't matter that the image is actually hosted on another site. It is served by the AI servers, and that's enough to get them according to SOPA.

Actually it is pretty clear fair use.

Quote:
It gets even worse.

Let's say someone sends a URL to the location of a copyrighted work through AI's instant messaging system. Without spying on our "private" messages, Kaspar et al can't even know a violation was made. It doesn't matter whether they can know or not. The URL was served using the AI servers. Arrests possible. site could be closed.

This is the end of the Internet, folks. The only way to comply wi SOPA and PIPA would be to stop users from posting any information at all. No more messaging. No more image posting. No more forums. No more Internet.

But don't be surprised when Megaupload goes back online soon and all charges are dropped. It's all part of the plan.

An aside... With all that money, don't you think the guy could hire a full-time personal trainer and nutritionist? Damn.

Again on the flip side maybe interests will see the need to limit copyright protection and that will force content providers to strike while iron is hot, grab their money and then later it goes to the public domain with fair use being well supported as well.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hands Sandon View Post

It's highly unlikely that any reasonable sites like AI who aren't raking in big bucks from copyright infringements would have anything to worry about.

One good thing to come from this so far is that it shows how the repubs here who are often proclaiming the moral high ground, are really just common thieves.

Oh, and long may megaupload serve behind bars.


Again Fair Use exists.

Examples of fair use include commentary, criticism, news reporting, research, teaching, library archiving and scholarship. It provides for the legal, unlicensed citation or incorporation of copyrighted material in another author's work under a four-factor balancing test. The term fair use originated in the United States. A similar principle, fair dealing, exists in some other common law jurisdictions. Civil law jurisdictions have other limitations and exceptions to copyright.

What we are doing with our discussions here in the forums is exactly what fair use is about and it is why the forum owners, even with the thousands of links we have posted here have no concern. No laws are being broken and the linking we do will cause more readers to go to those sites and do more reading.

Quote:
Originally Posted by BR View Post

Copyright infringement is not theft. I wish the folks that broke into my house last year had only copyright infringed my guitar and television--I'd still have my originals and wouldn't have had to replace them.

Well if it makes you feel better, you can think of the folks as occupiers who then redistributed your guitar and television to the lower percents.

"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." -George Orwell

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"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." -George Orwell

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post #10 of 14
1/20/12 at 8:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tonton View Post

Some of you may be aware that the file sharing service Megaupload was raided, closed, and the billionaire owner and staff arrested.

I'll assume you all know what Megaupload was.

It's very clear that the service facilitated piracy and copyright violation. So most people wouldn't find the arrests unexpected.

But the way I see it, these arrests can't stick as long as the defense shows that all effort was made to remove content as soon as it's reported. These are the restrictions of the DMCA. The owner and staff will walk and the site will go back online.

And that's exactly what the government wants.

The government wants to make a case for SOPA and PIPA. They want to show that without these new laws, we can't stop sites like MU from operating, but with these measures in place, it's easy to shut this type of site down. Combine that with the porn connection, and the public in general will tend to agree with the government's position.

But what about the side effects?

Let's say someone here posts a copyrighted work, like a photo of Marissa Miller with an iPod strategically placed on her nude body. The copyright is owned by Sports Illustrated.



Even if the site administrators act quickly to take the offending image offline, under SOPA and PIPA, that doesn't matter. Kaspar and the site owners can be arrested and charged. This site can be shut down. It doesn't matter that the image is actually hosted on another site. It is served by the AI servers, and that's enough to get them according to SOPA.

It gets even worse.

Let's say someone sends a URL to the location of a copyrighted work through AI's instant messaging system. Without spying on our "private" messages, Kaspar et al can't even know a violation was made. It doesn't matter whether they can know or not. The URL was served using the AI servers. Arrests possible. site could be closed.

This is the end of the Internet, folks. The only way to comply wi SOPA and PIPA would be to stop users from posting any information at all. No more messaging. No more image posting. No more forums. No more Internet.

But don't be surprised when Megaupload goes back online soon and all charges are dropped. It's all part of the plan.

An aside... With all that money, don't you think the guy could hire a full-time personal trainer and nutritionist? Damn.



Oops. Another copyright violation. Sorry, Kaspar! Hope you don't get arrested.

This is the intervention what is going to happen if the government gets involved.This site should close down and they should go to jail what they have done. It is always money right? That is the power behind people today.The internet has to many sites which should be shut down like porno sites and worse. This is a cesspool for the deviates in today's society.
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post #11 of 14
1/20/12 at 8:27pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by marvfox View Post

This is the intervention what is going to happen if the government gets involved.This site should close down and they should go to jail what they have done. It is always money right? That is the power behind people today.The internet has to many sites which should be shut down like porno sites and worse. This is a cesspool for the deviates in today's society.

But in this case, surely you can see that the cure is worse than the disease.
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post #12 of 14
1/20/12 at 8:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tonton View Post

This is the end of the Internet, folks. The only way to comply wi SOPA and PIPA would be to stop users from posting any information at all. No more messaging. No more image posting. No more forums. No more Internet.

Serves you right for undermining limited government in the name of your ideology.
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post #13 of 14
1/21/12 at 3:45am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ascii View Post

Serves you right for undermining limited government in the name of your ideology.

Exactly. Everyone and everything needs to be heavily controlled and regulated per him.

"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." -George Orwell

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"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." -George Orwell

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post #14 of 14
1/21/12 at 9:38am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hands Sandon View Post

Try telling that to all the artists and companies who lose millions. Annually an estimated $56 billion is lost. Maybe if they banged some of you piraters up you might drop these feable excuses.

I'm never convinced that they lost millions and billions. That assumes that each copy is a lost sale which obviously it is not.
The politics of charisma is so Third World. Americans were never going to buy into it for long. - Foudad Ajami
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The politics of charisma is so Third World. Americans were never going to buy into it for long. - Foudad Ajami
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