3 ms·

I think it's a bit of a stretch. The FBI had been investigating the MegaEmpire for years. If anything, their plan to legitimatize their business was a reaction

by dwyer 15y ago

I think it's a bit of a stretch. The FBI had been investigating the MegaEmpire for years. If anything, their plan to legitimatize their business was a reaction to the inevitable raid, not the other way around. Conspiracy theories make great link bait, but it's ridiculous to believe that somebody at UMG called somebody at the FBI and said "those gosh darn do-gooders at MegaUpload want to take down our evil empire and offer artists 90%, they must be stopped!" and the FBI complied. Anyways, this made me laugh. > "Yes that's right, we will pay artists even for free downloads. The Megakey business model has been tested with over a million users and it works." Yeah, they tested it alright.

Sapient 15y ago
> but it's ridiculous to believe that somebody at UMG called somebody at the FBI and said "those gosh darn do-gooders at MegaUpload want to take down our evil empire and offer artists 90%, they must be stopped!" and the FBI complied. After years of exposure to American media, I actually find this relatively easy to believe as far as conspiracy theories go.
- phyalow 15y ago
  Very unlikely, if you want some more background read the indictment (actually very interesting) in its raw glory here: http://www.nbr.co.nz/sites/default/files/images/78786408-Mega-Indictment.pdf http://www.nbr.co.nz/sites/default/files/images/78786408-Meg... It certainly changed my opinion on the whole matter.
  - larryfreeman 15y ago
    Thanks for the link. I started to read the court case and to be honest, the wording and descriptions really rubbed me the wrong way. I only read the first 7 or so pages. The more I read about the case, the more I feel that Megaupload did not break the law. Here's the best evidence against Megaupload that I can see: * Questionable characters (criminal background) * Obnoxious Lifestyle (Kim DotCom, license plates, etc.) * Loads of illegal content available The only one of these items that could be a crime is whether the site broke the law in providing incentives to reward popular content which often happened to be illegal. As far as I can tell, the following is true: * Megaupload rewarded popular content even if it was illegal * Megaupload took down all illegal content upon request following DCMA * The Megaupload employees did not seek out or upload illegal content. If my reasoning is correct, then Megaupload did not break the law. They followed DCMA. The scariest thing for me about this is the wording of this complaint and the ease at which its participants were criminalized.
viraptor 15y ago
I'd have to see more evidence before I'm completely convinced, but I don't see that as unlikely. Media concerns played with law enforcement before trying to sue normal people for crazy sums. They used the system to make those cases long, costly and tried forcing new laws which would make more attacks easier in the future. Why is it hard to imagine that they would pay a lot to speed up investigation / raid on a company which already had FBI's attention? It could be just a troll / conspiracy post of course, but I wouldn't say that this course of action is improbable.

by dwyer 15y ago

Sapient 15y ago

> but it's ridiculous to believe that somebody at UMG called somebody at the FBI and said "those gosh darn do-gooders at MegaUpload want to take down our evil empire and offer artists 90%, they must be stopped!" and the FBI complied. After years of exposure to American media, I actually find this relatively easy to believe as far as conspiracy theories go.

phyalow 15y ago
Very unlikely, if you want some more background read the indictment (actually very interesting) in its raw glory here: http://www.nbr.co.nz/sites/default/files/images/78786408-Mega-Indictment.pdf http://www.nbr.co.nz/sites/default/files/images/78786408-Meg... It certainly changed my opinion on the whole matter.
- larryfreeman 15y ago
  Thanks for the link. I started to read the court case and to be honest, the wording and descriptions really rubbed me the wrong way. I only read the first 7 or so pages. The more I read about the case, the more I feel that Megaupload did not break the law. Here's the best evidence against Megaupload that I can see: * Questionable characters (criminal background) * Obnoxious Lifestyle (Kim DotCom, license plates, etc.) * Loads of illegal content available The only one of these items that could be a crime is whether the site broke the law in providing incentives to reward popular content which often happened to be illegal. As far as I can tell, the following is true: * Megaupload rewarded popular content even if it was illegal * Megaupload took down all illegal content upon request following DCMA * The Megaupload employees did not seek out or upload illegal content. If my reasoning is correct, then Megaupload did not break the law. They followed DCMA. The scariest thing for me about this is the wording of this complaint and the ease at which its participants were criminalized.

viraptor 15y ago

I'd have to see more evidence before I'm completely convinced, but I don't see that as unlikely. Media concerns played with law enforcement before trying to sue normal people for crazy sums. They used the system to make those cases long, costly and tried forcing new laws which would make more attacks easier in the future. Why is it hard to imagine that they would pay a lot to speed up investigation / raid on a company which already had FBI's attention? It could be just a troll / conspiracy post of course, but I wouldn't say that this course of action is improbable.