'Tell you what I do like - A killer. A dyed-in-the-wool killer. Cold-blooded, clean, methodical, and thorough. Now a real killer, when he picked up the ZF-1, would have immediately asked about the big red button on the bottom of the gun.'

According to the article, Megaupload had some its servers based in Virginia. What a moron, if you're going to build an empire around file sharing and money laundering, don't put assets in range of the FBI.

ha-ha-guy: According to the article, Megaupload had some its servers based in Virginia. What a moron, if you're going to build an empire around file sharing and money laundering, don't put assets in range of the FBI.

According to TFA, the servers in the US were leased. If this is true, it opens a whole 'nother can of worms.

The button that SHUTS DOWN EVERYTHING?

This is both sad and scary. No one has been convicted of anything yet, and the case itself seems quite murky. And yet the feds still apparently believe they have the right to both control the site and start erasing data? Are they going to unerase all the data if the owners are found not guilty?

Isn't the data considered evidence of their crime? IANAL but wouldn't the defense have legal access to the evidence? And if it isn't evidence and it belongs to someone else, why delete it?

Bhruic: This is both sad and scary. No one has been convicted of anything yet, and the case itself seems quite murky. And yet the feds still apparently believe they have the right to both control the site and start erasing data? Are they going to unerase all the data if the owners are found not guilty?

A letter filed in the case on Friday by the US attorney's office said storage companies Carpathia Hosting and Cogent Communications Group may begin deleting data on Thursday.

The letter said the government copied some data from the servers but did not physically take them, and now that it had executed its search warrants, it had no right to access the data. Prosecutors said the servers were controlled by Carpathia and Cogent and issues about the future of the data must be resolved with them.

No,

Bhruic: This is both sad and scary. No one has been convicted of anything yet, and the case itself seems quite murky. And yet the feds still apparently believe they have the right to both control the site and start erasing data? Are they going to unerase all the data if the owners are found not guilty?

LOL. It's cute that you think he's going to be tried in a fair court.

From TFA: "Prosecutors said the servers were controlled by Carpathia and Cogent and issues about the future of the data must be resolved with them." And, "Megaupload is based in Hong Kong. The US authorities argue they had authority to act because some of its leased servers are in Virginia."

Doesn't that mean they should be prosecuting Carpathia and Cogent according to that logic?

Bhruic: This is both sad and scary. No one has been convicted of anything yet, and the case itself seems quite murky. And yet the feds still apparently believe they have the right to both control the site and start erasing data? Are they going to unerase all the data if the owners are found not guilty?

Eliminating evidence before a trial, yeah that would be a great idea.

Jonathan Coulton, the guy who wrote the songs for Portal, has an interesting take on Megaupload:
http://www.jonathancoulton.com/2012/01/21/megaupload/

DicksWii: From TFA: "Prosecutors said the servers were controlled by Carpathia and Cogent and issues about the future of the data must be resolved with them." And, "Megaupload is based in Hong Kong. The US authorities argue they had authority to act because some of its leased servers are in Virginia."

Doesn't that mean they should be prosecuting Carpathia and Cogent according to that logic?

Yes, and it will be addressed in the upcoming case of "MPAA/RIAA v. Everyone on Planet Earth who has so much as even looked at a computer."

/This is beyond ridiculous.
//I'm never paying for movies or music ever again.
///Arrrrrr!

Coming soon to fark.com. Welcome to America, comrade:

How did they search one of the world's largest servers in a week? Sounds like they're just determined to burn it, due process be damned.

Wow, lots of whining in this thread.

Protip: That thing that said "I agree to the above terms" , you know, the one below all that text you were too busy to read? Yeah, that actually meant something - it wasn't just a little checkbox to prove you had a mouse.

So, what were Megaupload's terms regarding data retention? The law is not based on what customers want.

DontMakeMeComeBackThere: Wow, lots of whining in this thread.

Protip: That thing that said "I agree to the above terms" , you know, the one below all that text you were too busy to read? Yeah, that actually meant something - it wasn't just a little checkbox to prove you had a mouse.

So, what were Megaupload's terms regarding data retention? The law is not based on what customers want.

Hahahaha that's funny because MegaUpload is getting shut down for letting people share what they want. Or were you trying to be ironic? They made customers agree not to share pirated stuff, people wanted to, the law stepped in and said "who is this jerk-off making money our friends want?"

Also, the whole entertainment copyright BS is a bunch of people pissed they can't keep getting paid for stuff they have already done. Does the builder or engineer get a cut when you resell the house they built? Does a scuplter get paid every time someone stares at the tits of the mermaid he cast for the harbourfront? Does the average person have the ability to make as much money as Tupac's estate has after he died, or the Beatles are making after they broke up/died?

Visual artists, musicians and actors can all make money doing REAL things, if they can't make money selling digital things then they should expand their real perfomances. Writers are kinda screwed, if books go away and everything gets stolen, you need to hope there will always be people who want a hard copy of a book. No one is willing to pay for a single book what they are for a painting/scupture/performance.

If they do gleefully push it, I can't wait for another crop of Twitter outrage by the geniuses who apparently used this totally legit service as their sole backup location.

Um, not wishing to try and derail the hate train on the feds, but I can't see anywhere in the article that says that they have any intention of deleting the data.

As far as I can see, feds finished their investigation and now the companies who own the servers (i.e not Megaupload) are saying that since the bills aren't being paid they aren't going to continue to keep the data. So basically it's all the fault of the guys in charge of Megaupload for getting the attention of the feds with their illegal activities.

But by all means keep mindlessly hating on the FBI.

The sound of one hand clapping: So basically it's all the fault of the guys in charge of Megaupload for getting the attention of the feds with their illegal activities.


You mean the guys arrested who have had their assets froze by aforementioned FBI guys and can't possibly pay the bills because of that? Yes clearly it is all the fault of the Megaupload guys.

/FBI raids your house and you won't even see your Toaster for 7 years
//but this makes sense????

Bhruic: This is both sad and scary. No one has been convicted of anything yet, and the case itself seems quite murky. And yet the feds still apparently believe they have the right to both control the site and start erasing data? Are they going to unerase all the data if the owners are found not guilty?

Guilt, and innocence, is a matter of timing.

Why is copyright infringement a criminal matter? If I had a patent and I felt some other entity was infringing on that patent, the government wouldn't go out and shut down that entity on my behalf, especially without there being a trial. There wouldn't be arrests or criminal prosecution. It'd be a civil matter. Why should copyright infringement be treated differently?

The sound of one hand clapping: Um, not wishing to try and derail the hate train on the feds, but I can't see anywhere in the article that says that they have any intention of deleting the data.

As far as I can see, feds finished their investigation and now the companies who own the servers (i.e not Megaupload) are saying that since the bills aren't being paid they aren't going to continue to keep the data. So basically it's all the fault of the guys in charge of Megaupload for getting the attention of the feds with their illegal activities.

But by all means keep mindlessly hating on the FBI.

See, because they are guilty. Come on people, let me appeal to your emotions, or possible appeal to your common sense. The seizure happened after the activities, so therefore, they happened because of the activities, and the FBI wouldn't have executed the warrant if the activities weren't illegal, so they really brought this on themselves. The problem is these guys are sitting up there thinking they are untouchable by our system, probably molesting children and lighting their drugs with stacks of money they got from pirating porn, and now they are trying to act like they are the victims here. The FBI is the world's foremost authority on criminal forensics, and they say these guys are obviously guilty, do you want everyone here to think you're an idiot by not realizing how illegal their activities were? Think of the children.

While it sucks for the half dozen people who lost data they were storing there, you had to be ab idiot to trust tour data to a place that was obviously a hotbed of piracy.

It's like the roofer explained at the end of Clerks. You may yourself be honest yourself, but putting yourself in the company of lowlifes has its risks.

Tour data = your data

/Autocorrect fail

I also added one too many "yourselfs"

Befuddled: Why is copyright infringement a criminal matter? If I had a patent and I felt some other entity was infringing on that patent, the government wouldn't go out and shut down that entity on my behalf, especially without there being a trial. There wouldn't be arrests or criminal prosecution. It'd be a civil matter. Why should copyright infringement be treated differently?

Because rich people in the entertainment industry have purchased enough politicians to make it happen.

A big red button you say?

BraveNewCheneyWorld: How did they search one of the world's largest servers in a week? Sounds like they're just determined to burn it, due process be damned.


Stinks to high heaven. Gotta wonder what sort of dirt they found on those servers. Scalia child porn?

I've watched more movies in theaters the last 10 years than I did in the previous 39 years. If a movie I want to watch is on Net Flix, I watch it there. If the movie studio thinks it's too damn valuable to sell to Net Flix, then F them, I'm watching it on any site that might have it if it's something I'd want to see. If it's not available anywhere on the net, then I don't watch it. They wouldn't have gotten a dime from me either way. So in my case, they didn't lose a dime on any movie I may have watched online from a less than legit site.
The downfall of movie theaters started long before the internet. It had more to do with supply and demand than any form of piracy. People started spending their entertainment dollars elsewhere.

IntotheAbyss: Bhruic: This is both sad and scary. No one has been convicted of anything yet, and the case itself seems quite murky. And yet the feds still apparently believe they have the right to both control the site and start erasing data? Are they going to unerase all the data if the owners are found not guilty?
[upload.wikimedia.org image 357x268]
Guilt, and innocence, is a matter of timing.



You betrayed THE LAW!

/oblig

/tree4life