“Megaupload is challenging the U.S. Government’s possession of millions of dollars in assets it seized from the company and its operators in January. The newly-filed and eye-opening motion slams the U.S. for holding the defendants liable for alleged offenses that aren’t even a crime, ignoring laws designed to offer them protection, failing to provide any detail whatsoever on alleged infringements, and pushing U.S. law far beyond its borders.” I’m sure Megaupload wasn’t exactly a fluffy bunny organisation, but rarely have I seen a government screw up so badly, and so publicly.
Must have been the Swedish government raiding and confiscating all computers in an entire hosting center just to get pirate bay servers..
Good move. I doubt they’ll ever get anything back from the greedy assholes in charge of our government, but I’m glad they’re at least putting up a fight.
They should just close all file share and torrent websites.
The vote down button is the hand pointing down at the lower right of this post
Sure, just as soon as you have an idea of exactly how to go about that? No? Didn’t think so. Instead of going after bittorrent, big content should hire the guy who developed it and use the p2p technology to form the backbone of a distributed, legal, network by which one could download lossless or near-lossless content from them without invasive DRM. They win and keep making money, we win by having a convenient, virus-free way of downloading content. Instead, they have these idiots who don’t understand technology running the show, and said idiots have no idea how to adapt. Oust the morons and put some new blood in there. </offtopic>
The thing is, it’s this attitude of “shut them all down” that got them in the situation they’re in now. The internet is simply too big. Shut one down, and two more take its place. It’s a war they will never win, no matter how many small battles they fight, and all the money they’ve supposedly lost from downloaders is nothing to how much they’re pissing away on courts and legislation.
They just have not yet changed the laws and applied them retroactively.
The law enforcement sectors have been allowed to take any and all possessions that were in the course of a criminal act. Hunters get their rifles and trucks taken if they violate the laws. Fishermen get their boats taken. Drug dealers can get their homes and boats and jets taken. Stock market crooks get their possessions frozen. Why should this guy get his back? Asking for it all back may show that more illegal actions were being done.
The government generally files very specific charges and provides the defense with substantial evidence for poachers, drug dealers, tax evaders, and securities criminals. I think his argument is that the government has failed to allege any crime for which property may be seized before being found guilty, and that many of the alleged crimes are not, in fact, even crimes. Further, he makes the argument that the prosecution has not turned over any evidence that substantiates much of what was charged.
A better question might be why the USA, which prides itself on the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, allows the government to seize property and liberty without proof of guilt.
Indeed. In that case it seems to be that no evidence was needed cause everybody did buy whatever the media-mafia sold them.
A prime example why strong mechanisms to protect from the government is a base principle needed to keep freedom and security.
Edited 2012-06-02 00:29 UTC
The Megaupload case wasn’t about legalities or guilt, it was about destroying the business. Even if after everything is said and done, Megaupload is found to have not been guilty of a criminal conspiracy and all those involved in the business are absolved–the company has still been destroyed. Which was the original goal of the MAFIAA all along.
More than that, several of the competitors to Megaupload were spooked by the illegal actions of the US government to the point where they too have more or less shuttered. As far as the MAFIAA is concerned this is a win too, because Megaupload’s competition was also their competition.
For all the talk about freeloaders, pirates, etc the biggest sin Megaupload was guilty of was showing that people were indeed willing to pay a reasonable fee for access. Too bad the MAFIAA chose to cling to its rapidly deteriorating 20th century business model instead of following the lead of Megaupload and making money themselves…
–bornagainpenguin
Transcript from 1982, where Jack Valenti is explaining why the VCR/VHS will kill the movie business:
http://cryptome.org/hrcw-hear.htm
They wanted it banned.
Clint Eastwood joins in, too…
The final agreement on the VHS and other recordable media was to put a pretty large tax in the US on any of those blank products. The proceeds from those taxes were to be shared by many groups. VHS didn’t kill the industry because of this tax putting money in pockets from I Love Lucy to Frank Zappa.
jefro spouted…
Yeah, yeah…I question whether any of the money from that tax ever made its way to any of the artists or performers the industry cried huge crocodile tears for. Considering how many artists have had to sue to get their share of settlement monies from previous MAFIAA action I somehow feel less than optimistic.
Oh and google around for information on Megakey, which I believe was the insult that demanded the MAFIAA take down Megaupload immediately, before the artists and performers discovered just how useless the self-styled gatekeepers of culture really are in an age of digital abundance…
–bornagainpenguin
I have the feeling that the real mission is already accomplished. The goal was to destroy Megaupload and scare competitors, which is a total success on all accounts (piracy does continue elsewhere…).
They looked at the example of The Pirate Bay, where seizing the servers and trial was not enough to shut the service down. So they wanted something big, really big, that would make an impression, like sending SWAT units to arrest the guy, seizing the domain name and all assets that they could reach. If they could, they would have jailed Kim Dotcom’s family.
They do not have legal grounds for all (or any of) their actions ? And they are taking the chance of getting the whole legal process canceled for violation of due process ? It does not matter, since, at the end of the day, the US government does not care if Kim Dotcom spend time in jail, they also do not care about his 100 m$ fortune.
Megaupload is dead, and the competition is now collaborating to get ride of pirated content. Mission is accomplished.
If they want to get rid of “pirated” content, they should consider making legal use of their copyrighted material more convenient than illegal use. As it stands now, while it’s mildly less expensive to violate copyright, it’s HUGELY more convenient – no DRM, no enforced lectures on copyright, no restrictions on the devices on which I can use the material, backups… It’s astounding to me that ANYone goes the legal route.
(Disclaimer: I go the legal route as a moral obligation – except that I purchase much less copyrighted material than in my younger days. And when I do, it’s usually second-hand.
For example, I wanted to read “Atlas Shrugged” to better understand Ron Paul in the current US election cycle. An eBook version is $15, and is limited to one device type.
After long searching, I finally just bought a used paperback for $6, for which Rand’s estate got $0, though I would have readily paid them $10 for a PDF. For people who champion capitalism, they really don’t seem to understand it very well. *Sigh*)