January 19, 2012

Megaupload shut down

The Feds just shut down Megaupload and arrested the owners for piracy.

The four were arrested in New Zealand and presumably will be extradited.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Weird World at 01:20 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
Post contains 27 words, total size 1 kb.

1 Copyright infringement, definitely; you'd be hard-pressed to find non-infringing content on services like Megaupload. The racketeering and money laundering charges, on the other hand, just look like abuse of RICO laws to get the result they want: it's easier to extradite a gangster than a web-site owner.

-j

Posted by: J Greely at January 19, 2012 02:48 PM (fpXGN)

2 Interesting theory. Megaupload had an "uploader rewards program" that gave people incentives to upload stuff. I can see how you could at least put together an argument that doing so meant you were already outside the bounds of the usual DMCA safe harbor provision...

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at January 19, 2012 03:17 PM (pWQz4)

Posted by: Jaked at January 19, 2012 05:29 PM (ihVoM)

4 Wow! The ants sure are pouring out of the nest, aren't they?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 19, 2012 06:11 PM (+rSRq)

5 So, they'll steal credit cards and publicize personal information from Stratfor subscribers for vague, mostly undeclared reasons (people and governments we don't like pay them to read wire reports and provide analysis!), but when it comes to RIAA and MPAA, all they'll do is whine and DDoS for a few hours?

What am I missing here?  How is this supposed to make sense?

Posted by: BigD at January 19, 2012 09:38 PM (u0/7E)

6
What am I missing here? How is this supposed to make sense?
That's what you're missing.

Less snarkily, the "membership" of Anonymous ranges from nearly rational libertarians to mindless anarchists.  The actions attributed to them may illustrate their worldview, but are unlikely to constitute any sort of cohesive plan.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at January 19, 2012 10:17 PM (PiXy!)

7 It's not an organized group. It's a mob.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 19, 2012 11:29 PM (+rSRq)

8 Nothing so cohesive, Steven.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at January 20, 2012 05:29 AM (PiXy!)

9 Mobs have a greater tendency to stick together and stampede in a single direction.

Posted by: ubu at January 20, 2012 07:35 AM (i7ZAU)

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