First Megaupload now Filesonic

[Belloc]

Get it through your skull that just because SOPA didn't pass, doesn't mean the next one won't. The shut down of Megaupload shows that SOPA is unnecessary, as it was accomplished without SOPA. That doesn't matter though, because they'll continue to try to pass bills like this.

The fact that bills like this are being put forward and have any support at all is cause for some sort of revolution. It's very obvious that politicians are owned by corporations, that's not right. I didn't say violent revolution, don't get your fucking pitchfork out. The people voting on things don't understand them.

SOPA has nothing to do with this. SOPA is obviously not required to shut down sites that rely on piracy to turn a profit.

Seriously, save your SOPA bitching for issues that actually involve SOPA. Punishing people who profit off of piracy is a good thing.

[Odina]

I hate to break it to all you dramatic folks in this thread, but when someone is breaking the law and they get caught, that doesn't suddenly mean that we're living in a crazy police state where all our rights are being taken away.

I guess they should ban all sports cars off roads as many people break the law with them and speed all the time. The natural thing to do would be Ban sports cars entirely and close them down so no one can break the law by speeding in them! I know there are some that drive responsibly in them but on avg most don't ... I mean what kind of a crazy world do we live in where that is not policed and dealerships can sell cars that can do illegal things!

and a fast reply the the generic answer of "we ticket them" is that many of the file sharing places removed pirated media but since they did't get all of it then they aren't doing enough. So the same can be said for sports cars...teh cops can't ticket everyone that speeds...so naturally make them all illegal!

[zazuch]

Every time you rant and rave about crappy DRM, games that require an internet connection even when they're single player, sites being shut down, prices on products being jacked up, etc etc....take a look at your bookmarks or your program list. If you find yourself looking at torrent clients and filesharing sites then it's not the government that's the problem. It's you.

If they didn't drive us there to begin with we wouldn't be there. I haven't downloaded anything in a long time because imo it isn't worth the risk. But at the same time as others said i refuse to pay 15$ for a damn movie. A lot of the media industry charges way way way to much for their shit. Cable and internet is already ridiculous. Not to mention a lot of the stuff i have seen friends downloaded or got from friends i wouldn't of purchased or watched anyways.

Closing sites like megaupload that have legit uses and are used legitly. Ex i bought a indie game and their way to get it was to download from their rapidshare account. Saying well they knew pirates used their services to spread the files so they need to be shut down and jailed. That is exactly saying that all gun manufactures and gun shops need to be shut down and jailed because their guns are used in crimes. There are 100% legit uses for guns but its NOT the companies fault(which this has been brought to court several times and failed) that someone uses their services illegal. Hell you could almost turn this back to hollywood themselves. By saying well hollywood if you didn't make these movies john doe wouldn't have pirated it! I mean that is almost the razor edge your walking with promoting these sites to be shut down.

[Halicia]

I hate to break it to all you dramatic folks in this thread, but when someone is breaking the law and they get caught, that doesn't suddenly mean that we're living in a crazy police state where all our rights are being taken away.

But thats not what happened.... even the public announcement was that they SUSPECTED there was something illegal going on, and so they issued punishment. No actual investigation or determination of guilt...

THAT is a crazy police state where all your rights are taken away.

(i'd use a comparison to individual rights, but its just so absurd the examples would be absurd)

[Twiddly]

Anonymous is not a real group, there are some "real" hackers in it, but the rest are just kidiots, and more sinister; they are government paid employees that are seeking to make it seem that the internet is a dangerous place and there MUST be laws in place.

[Zygersaf]

Fileserves site is still up, but you cant download anyhting unless you are the one who uploaded it >.< cancled my preimium, jsut waiting for an email to confirm they actually did it :/

Just tried to get onto megaupload to see what it acutally says... bloody american government, I can see where they are coming from, but this is really the wrong way to go about it

[Odina]

Trying to make it sound like something analogous to "banning cars"

I never said to ban cars just s[ports cars ...you know the ones most likely to do illegal things... like the file sharing sites are the ones most probably to have that evil pirate stuff!

[Maester]

All I'm going to say is enjoy Torrents - and by that I mean abuse the hell out of them - for as long as you can, because I am sure Torrents, along with the rest of the file sharing sites, will be no more by the end of the year.

Piracy has ran its course.

[Zygersaf]

Ohg alos, thought I would share this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0Wvn-9BXVc

I know, its a shame about megaupload but there isnt much we can do about it now :/ this song is kind of happy though remember the good times

*hopes this doesnt trigger a massive backing of SOPA or something*

[Pancha]

I sense a world war of some sort in the horizon.

[zazuch]

They went after one very specific business that was engaged in specific illegal activities.

Ok but what you have to see here is they want to set a precedent. So lets use that in my example. A family or organization goes after Smith & Wesson(megaupload in this case) and win a court case proving that their actions lead to murder(pirating in megauploads case) and are financially responsible and the CEO needs to be jailed and the company shut down. ONCE that precedent is set then its a flood gate of people going after COLT(rapidshare) Ruger(w/e filesharing site you want) for the same reasons all because of the fact that Smith & Wesson(megaupload) was found guilty/liable and got shut down they will then go after the others like it. See how it works?

All court cases civil and criminal are based of precedents(cases of the same nature that have been ruled on) So they only need 1 to start a flood gate of law suits and site shut downs.

Yeah, except nothing is being "banned" here. If you speed in your car and get pulled over, the government isn't banning your make and model of car, they're removing YOUR car from the road.

Same deal here. The authorities didn't just say, "All sites go away!" they went after one specific site for specific charges.

Filesharing sites aren't just going to all vanish. What you'll probably see as a result of this move is other sites taking their services down for a time while they ensure their operation is clean, then a return of said services with greater safeguards against pirated materials.

All it takes is one precedent in courts and it could happen.

[Zygersaf]

I sense a world war of some sort in the horizon.

You mean the rest of the world against America? :P

What gives them the right to take the site down for the entire world and not jsut the USA?

[zazuch]

You mean the rest of the world against America? :P

What gives them the right to take the site down for the entire world and not jsut the USA?

Because control over America isn't enough they want to control the whole world.

[Catharlex]

You mean the rest of the world against America? :P

What gives them the right to take the site down for the entire world and not jsut the USA?

It isn't just America that is for this though. Many other countries and agencies have been working with the U.S. in an attempt to get these kinds of websites down.

[DetectiveJohnKimble]

Because control over America isn't enough they want to control the whole world.

Yeah, because the US government has jurisdiction over and has completely barred filesharing sites from using non-US servers and non-US domains.

[Zoldor]

Yeah this isn't just the US government. Its groups like the RIAA, MPAA, etc that want to collect royalty rights until the end of time for shit they created 100 years ago. Go look at IP law sometime, its amazing how every time Micky Mouse is up to become public domain copyright law gets extended. Sorta mysterious don't ya think. Its the major players in the IP market that are doing this, they just push on the government for the take downs to get people into court. It is private groups hunting down people to "protect" "their" intellectual property. Sadly it isn't even the artists/performers that benefit either its just the executives and board members worried they won't be able to buy their 16 year old daughter a Bentley. Maybe Hollywood and the Record industry should stop spending 100 million dollars to make a re-make movie that doesn't gross enough to cover the costs. All these people are, are stock brokers that invest in IP and call themselves Executive producers. What they don't realize is that without the internet a good majority of the shit they put out wouldn't be seen at all by people let alone would people pay money for it. Lesser of two evils. It is more than Governments at fault and causing this issues, its the corporations and groups that feel like IP law should last Forever instead of dying with the creators.

Also yeah, any company that hosts filesharing from American servers probably deserves to be busted. Common sense shows about 10 years ago with the napster daboggle that maybe the US wasn't a good place for a file sharing network to be hosted.

[starkey]

All I'm going to say is enjoy Torrents - and by that I mean abuse the hell out of them - for as long as you can, because I am sure Torrents, along with the rest of the file sharing sites, will be no more by the end of the year.

Piracy has ran its course.

Far from it, Piracy will never die there other ways of getting information apart from torrents or file share places, all this will do is push piracy back too the underground like the old days FTP's and Bullentin Boards

[Twiddly]

Pirating is wrong anyway, I do not agree that the sites should be shut down, but stronger measures to stop piracy is not a bad thing in the long run.

Unpopular opinion I know, but you know it is true ;(

[DetectiveJohnKimble]

I guess they should ban all sports cars off roads as many people break the law with them and speed all the time. The natural thing to do would be Ban sports cars entirely and close them down so no one can break the law by speeding in them! I know there are some that drive responsibly in them but on avg most don't ... I mean what kind of a crazy world do we live in where that is not policed and dealerships can sell cars that can do illegal things!

and a fast reply the the generic answer of "we ticket them" is that many of the file sharing places removed pirated media but since they did't get all of it then they aren't doing enough. So the same can be said for sports cars...teh cops can't ticket everyone that speeds...so naturally make them all illegal!

So has every filesharing site out there been attacked? Is Youtube going to get taken down tomorrow? No.

The case against Megaupload is that the managers knowingly used their site to allow illegal content to be hosted so they could profit off of it, and then used such profits to engage in racketeering and money laundering. Whether that case will be proven is another issue, but to use the analogy you're trying to make demonstrates why we don't always use popular passage of laws in the US.

[starkey]

The current issue in New Zealand atm is dotcom bought his way into New Zealand and our government let him, because all the opposition parties are asking why was he allowed here in the first place after knowing he had a fraudulent past he was in the midst of building a 30millon dollar home and hiring nannys and security personal also he has guns with no license but our government still looked the other way.