Megaupload...dead.

[LimpingFish]

Megaupload has just been nuked.

http://gizmodo.com/5877612/feds-kill-megaupload

If your AGS game, or game related files, were hosted on it, you might want to look for an alternative.

[Noctambulo]

Megaupload has just been nuked.

http://gizmodo.com/5877612/feds-kill-megaupload

If your AGS game, or game related files, were hosted on it, you might want to look for an alternative.

And neither SOPA or PIPA have been aproved... I'm not  at all the religious type, but if there is something like a good time to start praying, it is right now...

[Ghost]

Megaupload has just been nuked.

Do you know if  that's permanent? I have some old stuff up there, without backups...

[Noctambulo]

Megaupload has just been nuked.

Do you know if  that's permanent? I have some old stuff up there, without backups...

Well, there are 7 arrested...

[Anian]

It's conveniently set around SOPA discussions, but still the charges doesn't just seem to be around piracy, but more "serious" (well some violent ones) crimes.

[LimpingFish]

Do you know if  that's permanent?

Too early to say. It seems to go beyond piracy, though, with emphasis being put on various crimes the people behind the service are accused of. Unless, it's a FBI/Hollywood conspiracy to pull the service down on false grounds.

With the shit the MPAA and RIAA, and their shills in Washington, pull on an almost daily basis, I wouldn't be surprised.

[Wyz]

A sad day for the internet.

[Stupot]

I only used Megavideo* to watch streams so I'm not overly affected.  It just means I have one less place to look for my TV shows that I haven't paid for... ho hum.

I had been toying with the idea of buying premium subscription to get rid of the 72-minute limit, but decided against it.  Funnily enough, I figured that if I was going to pay to watch stuff then I might as well pay iTunes or Netflix, where at least some of my money would go towards the people who make the shows.

Still, I'll miss Mega, because it generally had the best quality-speed ratio compared to most other streaming sites.


(*as well as Megarotic aka Megaporn aka Cum.com)

[Gilbert]

Well, considering the fact that Megaupload has blocked access from IPs in Hong Kong for more than two years already (unless you use their stupid downloader or a proxy server, which I dare not to try), so this isn't a big loss to us.

I'm more concerned on whether they'll continue on doing the same to other hosting sites though

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Of course they will, provided they can get away with it. 

It's funny though how people will dismiss an issue if they don't perceive it to affect them...'I don't use megaupload so why should I care?'

Then it gets around to something they DO care about and one wonders if they should have said something or stood up earlier when the writing was on the wall.

[Stupot]

It's funny though how people will dismiss an issue if they don't perceive it to affect them...'I don't use megaupload so why should I care?'

Not sure if this was directed at me or Iceboty, or both, but I hope my previous post didn't imply that I don't care about what has happened today.  I think it's a severe blow for the internet.  But my point was that I personally only ever used Megavideo almost exclusively for watching pirated TV shows (in other words, to break the law), so I can't really complain about having that taken away from me.

[Noctambulo]

Of course they will, provided they can get away with it. 

It's funny though how people will dismiss an issue if they don't perceive it to affect them...'I don't use megaupload so why should I care?'

Then it gets around to something they DO care about and one wonders if they should have said something or stood up earlier when the writing was on the wall.

"First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak out because I was Protestant.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me"

Same story, different actors...

[Gilbert]

Not sure if this was directed at me or Iceboty, or both...

I don't get who he's directed at either, and I never said I didn't care about it and I didn't dismiss the issue either. There is an issue, just that it's not affecting me yet, so it's a worrying fact if the trend continues.

[Ponch]

Personally, I'm shocked that Stupot knew there was porn on the internet. Who told you? We were trying to keep that a secret.  8)

Also, dark day for the internet. Bullshit like this is why I'm a libertarian. Keep the senate and the feds off my damn internets!  


UPDATE:
Anonymous revenges!
http://gizmodo.com/5877679/anonymous-kills-department-of-justice-site-in-megaupload-revenge-strike

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Not sure if this was directed at me or Iceboty, or both

It was a general statement with no names attached to it because I personally know people who are exactly like I described (and so do you).


Edit:  I'd be very careful before attributing an attack from 'anonymous' to anyone in particular.  When you are part of a movement who by its very nature is invisible, anyone can come forward and claim to be part of your team...And yes, I'm saying this could be a hastily staged event by the government to come in and shout 'SEE!?  SEE WHY WE NEED SOPA AND PIPA!?'  I'm not saying I'm right, but it's not like governments have never staged events to precipitate a response before.  

You must admit the timing is really convenient, though.

[Darth Mandarb]

I'm shocked it took 'em as long as it did to nuke Megaupload!  But I'm glad it took 'em that long because they had to follow due process to make it happen.   It was up to the copyright holders to PROVE their case. A glorious (and correct) method that wouldn't be possible if bullshit legislation like SOPA/PIPA were in place!

I would agree there's a bigger issue at play here but my reason for not being worried isn't just because I didn't use MU (I never liked that site) or the 'fed' having power they shouldn't (which they shouldn't).  My reason for not being worried is simple; MU might be gone, but tomorrow 5 more sites just like it will vie for the new #1 spot previously held by MU.  Then our super-smart-corporate-controlled-government can spend another 2-3 years (and several million dollars of tax payer's money) to shut it down and when it dies, the next day another 5 will start the process over.  They just won't learn.

I just don't understand why anybody (govt, corps, etc) would try to fight sites like that (or others like Pirate Bay) ... they will never win.  No matter the laws, rules, guidelines, or gestapos that are put in place they will never stop it.  If they hired 10,000 top-notch people to combat this "plague" they'll still be outnumbered 1,000,000 to 1.

They should try to enact a law that makes it illegal for the earth to spin the way it does and try to force it to reverse its spin.  They'll have a better chance of that happening than stopping sites like MU (or piracy in general).

[monkey0506]

Darth, lol. Me and Secret Fawful were discussing on Facebook, and at this rate, we decided, it's not long before the U.S. Government outlaws fire and will begin holding individual citizens responsible for its use (even (especially?) in the case of wildfires).

Regarding anti-piracy legislation, I feel you and I take a pretty similar stand, but just to help understand the average person's mindset, how about some questions? To keep it generic, we'll just use "Media" to mean any form of pictures/video/audio/software/etc. that may or may not be otherwise "protected" under copyright:

- If the Media were free of charge, would you use illegal methods to obtain it?

- If you had the financial capability of legally purchasing the Media, would you (regardless of source, price, etc.)?

- Is the source of the Media (meaning here, the benefactor(s) of purchase) a determining factor as to whether or not you would purchase it legally (regardless of price, etc.)?

- Is the price of the Media a determining factor as to whether or not you would buy it via legal channels (regardless of financial capability, would you buy it at the given asking price)?

- Does availability of the Media (in your country, and/or based on channels through which you may already have purchased/subscribed to the Media, etc.) affect the decision to purchase it legally?

- Do some or all of the above mentioned factors act together in deciding whether or not you would purchase the Media legally?

- Based on the questions above, are there any other specific questions which would be relevant to such a decision (to make a legal purchase or not)?

- If you had reached the decision not to make a legal purchase, are there any specific reasonings why you would or would not make an attempt to obtain the materials illegally (moral, ethical, etc.)? Are those reasons sufficient that they would likely prevent you from making such attempts?

I just tried to observe my own justifications for items that I may or may not have had to make similar decisions about myself (that's a nice political way of stating it, eh? ). For me, if I have the financial capability then there's rarely a situation that I can think of where I would obtain anything illegally instead of purchasing it legally. If there was then a personal opinion about something being overpriced or the source not being "deserving" of my money might cross my mind.

I'm not saying that piracy is moral or ethical or "right" under any circumstances. Still, I think it would be interesting to know what drives it.

[Eigen]

I've seen that "seized by FBI" image before on a few tv-series/movies link hosting (hosting links to other sites, not the infringing content itself) sites a few years back, so it's not anything new, but the timing on this one is just bad.

[Darth Mandarb]

Regarding anti-piracy legislation, I feel you and I take a pretty similar stand, but just to help understand the average person's mindset, how about some questions? To keep it generic, we'll just use "Media" to mean any form of pictures/video/audio/software/etc. that may or may not be otherwise "protected" under copyright:
...
I just tried to observe my own justifications for items that I may or may not have had to make similar decisions about myself (that's a nice political way of stating it, eh? ). For me, if I have the financial capability then there's rarely a situation that I can think of where I would obtain anything illegally instead of purchasing it legally. If there was then a personal opinion about something being overpriced or the source not being "deserving" of my money might cross my mind.

Rather than answer each question individually I'll just give my take on the situation (which covers most of the questions anyway).

---

The notion of "stopping" online piracy is silly.  The name SOPA shows just how misinformed the government is on the topic (and how greedy and deluded are the media companies).  You cannot stop piracy.  It's just a fact of the world we live in and was before the world was digital as well!  You cannot stop it, but you can reduce the amount of it (more on the later).

Go back to the root of the word; pirate.  It conjures up romantic images of peg-legs, parrots and rum, and high adventure on the open seas... It was also illegal and punishable by a gruesome hanging (or even death by exposure) if you were caught.  And yet even today there are still modern pirates on the world's oceans!  It was illegal way back in the day as it is today and yet there were/are pirates everywhere!

It's the same principle with pirating "media".  It's happening and it's not going to stop no matter what they do about it.

The media companies want to label pirates as "thieves" which, once again, shows their greed/ignorance.  It's not stealing.  It just isn't.  If I wasn't going to buy it in the first place what have they lost?  Nothing.  I didn't take something that they cannot then sell.  It's no different than a friend of yours making you a mix-tape back in the 80s. (which the media companies tried to make illegal as well and failed of course).  There is no hard evidence that piracy loses these companies money.  In fact it's been speculated that those who pirate actually buy more 'media' in the end than those that don't pirate.

Why is it not stealing? I make this comparison; my brother bought Uncharted 3 last November.  He played through it and then let me borrow it.  I didn't buy the game but I'm playing it.  Should I be in jail?  I am playing the game that they didn't take my money for.  I'm a pirate!!  Arggghhh!!  It's just a silly notion that has gotten a foot-hold and they aren't willing to see the folly and change their course.

The media companies had it easy for the last century.  The populace was uninformed about their business models and practices.  We simply didn't know anything.  That is no longer the case.  This scares the shit out of media companies (and the government which is why they want so badly to censor the web 'cause they like their citizens to be stupid and mindless sheep that will just follow the herd but let's keep this discussion about online piracy ) and they are doing the only thing their greed allows them to do.  They are attacking!

There is a great TED talk on why SOPA is a bad idea; Linky, Link, It's a tad on the long side, but well worth a listen!

Now, should they simply do nothing about piracy?  Of course not, they run a business and that business runs on money!  They need/want to make money (as do most humans).  But the path they are taking is foolish and fatally flawed.

They are hiring staff to take useless steps to combat piracy.  We'll use video games as an example.  They spend all this time, money and energy to create this new and improved copy protection on their latest game.  This causes the production cost to increase which they, in order to protect their profits, pass on to their customers as a price increase in the game.  So... to fight piracy you screw over your legitimate customers by charging them more money, the pirates will still get the game for free and your new copy protection system will be broken 5 minutes after the game is out by some 14 year old in his parent's basement.  Congratulations!!  You've accomplished NOTHING but screwing over your customers!  Good job!

This method seems to be the only thing these companies can come up with.  It has two effects; 1) It causes them to raise prices which loses them some customers who can no longer afford the game, which sometimes causes them to pirate and leads to... 2) it causes more piracy.

The answer is simple; LOWER YOUR PRICES.

It should be obvious to the media companies that the reason piracy is so rampant is because, duh, it is FREE!!  The economy is shit and you're charging me 60 dollars for a game I can easily get for free??  What do they honestly think is going to happen in that situation?  We/They can say, "yeah but it's 'wrong'" ... it doesn't change the fact that it is happening.  And it's happening because you are charging too much for your product(s) when there is a free alternative.

Loose example;  If they price the game at 60 USD and they sell 100,000 units they pull down 6,000,000 USD.  Lower that price by 1/2 and put the game on the market at 30 USD and they'd sell 1,000,000 units (30,000,000 USD in sales) as they've put the game into MANY more people's affordable price-range!  Half-price equals a 5 fold increase in profits.  Now I'm pulling these numbers out of the air but the idea is sound.

Lower prices = more sales, less piracy.

Now I'm not an expert.  I'm not saying "I know the answers".  I could be wrong (I often am).  But what I do know is that what they are doing (and trying to do) has not, is not, and never will work.  All they are accomplishing is making themselves look greedy and "bad" and are turning the masses against them.

People are 'waking up' and starting to see how these corporations have been (and are) screwing us over!  People are starting to realize that these corporations don't control us, WE control them!  Without us (consumers) they have nothing.  I am optimistic that there's going to be MAJOR change in the coming years as the world slowly realizes the corrupt nature of corporations and rallies against it.  Naive?  Maybe... but I'm still optimistic!

[Ponch]

While I agree that piracy is bad, I don't trust the government to do more good than harm when the get involved. People that torrent movies and games and stuff suck, IMO. I watch a ton of movies through Netflix and Amazon. I use Hulu to satisfy my craving for documentaries and older movies. Piracy sucks because it takes money away from the people who created the product and ought to be paid for it.

That being said, the government is a big, stupid, lumbering beast. Government action is akin to a club, not a scalpel. Once the government gets involved in policing the net, then all sorts of people and sites will get hit by that club. And, as others have pointed out, the pirates will not be stopped or even slowed down very much. But lots of innocent people who made video reviews of movies or games will be shut down and the government spokespeople will hold those poor saps up as an example of the pirates that have been put out of business. 

Leave my internet alone, government. Stop trying to help.