9 ms·

I know this might sound like a conspiracy theory, but why did kim dotcom host servers in the U.S., clearly he knew about the issues that would present, so maybe

by wyck 15y ago

I know this might sound like a conspiracy theory, but why did kim dotcom host servers in the U.S., clearly he knew about the issues that would present, so maybe he wanted to test the system legally and get a bit of spotlight for himself, the scapegoat turned avenger?

sycren 15y ago
perhaps he has more paying customers in the US and so it makes sense to keep some servers in the US to distribute content more efficiently
nikcub 15y ago
MegaUpload ran a net profit margin of around 40%. Hosting anywhere else probably would have wiped a lot of that out. Their main competitive advantage was download speeds in the USA - if you read online comments there was constant bitching about the speeds of other sites vs Megaupload. But forget the download servers being hosted in Virginia - what is much much worse is that they hosted their email servers at the same colo. This entire case and almost all of the evidence is built up around the contents of that email server. The feds obtained a secret warrant to get the details and most of the facts in the indictment are based on what they found. I wrote about this here: http://nikcub.appspot.com/posts/how-megaupload-was-investigated-and-indicted http://nikcub.appspot.com/posts/how-megaupload-was-investiga... I hope this case makes it to a trial because I would like to find out what probable cause was used to obtain the warrant to handover the email server.
- scott_s 15y ago
  That's a rational, measured assessment. You bring up an excellent point at the end: if all of their evidence is from the emails, how did they get the warrant to obtain the emails? I submitted it, but it looks like you already did so last week, and it didn't get much attention. I hope more people can see it from this thread.
  - nikcub 15y ago
    Thanks. I have resubmitted it, assuming that is ok to do. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3529536 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3529536 I have also been spending some time reading over the Viacom vs YouTube case. The parallels between it and Megaupload are striking - the difference being that Megaupload is a criminal case while YouTube was a civil case. I found that the YouTube internal emails were much more incriminating than the MegaUpload emails. I plan on writing up the details of the emails and other parallels between the two cases sometime this week.
  - jonhendry 15y ago
    Maybe they had a source inside MegaUpload.
- cookiecaper 15y ago
  Another excellent argument to use encryption. It seems every couple of weeks there is another high-profile incident where a lot of trouble would have been saved if people had taken the time to set up Enigmail. I would also love to see some advances in client-side steganography that could be usable as easily as GPG. Probably the closest thing we have now is TrueCrypt hidden volumes but that doesn't really work for email.
  - bri3d 15y ago
    Keeping encrypted data in the US is increasingly futile - see http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/judge-fifth-amendment-doesnt-protect-encrypted-hard-drives.ars http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/judge-fifth-... . Steganography is a good idea, though. (edited: corrected stenography -> steganography per too-aggressive spellchecker usage)
    - DanBC 15y ago
      > Stenography is a good idea, though. Steganography is provably secure but requires a lot of cover data and careful implementation. Steganography is less useful for most purposes than most people want.
      - cookiecaper 15y ago
        Unfortunately this is the case now. I am hoping that someone invents something that makes steganography more usable. "----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE----" is a little obvious for my taste, though of course encryption is much better than nothing.
    - cwp 15y ago
      I think you mean steganography. "Stenography" is writing down what someone is saying.
      - cookiecaper 15y ago
        Indeed, I should have paid more attention to my spell checker which does not recognize "steganography". Thanks.
- Natsu 15y ago
  The indictment mentions NinjaVideo as an affiliate of some sort. Given that they were recently taken down for criminal infringement, it is possible that they found something in their emails or whatever which they were able to use against MU. Assuming that's true, one would expect them to go after any affiliates of MU next, using the evidence they've gathered in this case.
trotsky 15y ago
So you're saying that a german national and convicted white collar criminal may have intentionally had his hundred million dollar plus company shuttered and himself and his employees held without bail so that he could force a legal showdown with the US government over whether or not he was adequately exploiting loopholes in the DMCA?
narag 15y ago
Last week I read somewhere that Megaupload ended owning the servers after a legal dispute ended with the bankrupcy of an american company called Alpha Red. That meant it started to be reachable by USA, as evidenced by a civil demand a year ago by https://www.perfect-10.tv/ https://www.perfect-10.tv/ http://www.hispalinux.es/sites/hispalinux/files/1-main.pdf http://www.hispalinux.es/sites/hispalinux/files/1-main.pdf http://www.hispalinux.es/sites/hispalinux/files/order%20perfect%2010%20megaupload.pdf http://www.hispalinux.es/sites/hispalinux/files/order%20perf... No sources for the rest, maybe someone knows something more.

by wyck 15y ago

sycren 15y ago

perhaps he has more paying customers in the US and so it makes sense to keep some servers in the US to distribute content more efficiently

nikcub 15y ago

MegaUpload ran a net profit margin of around 40%. Hosting anywhere else probably would have wiped a lot of that out. Their main competitive advantage was download speeds in the USA - if you read online comments there was constant bitching about the speeds of other sites vs Megaupload. But forget the download servers being hosted in Virginia - what is much much worse is that they hosted their email servers at the same colo. This entire case and almost all of the evidence is built up around the contents of that email server. The feds obtained a secret warrant to get the details and most of the facts in the indictment are based on what they found. I wrote about this here: http://nikcub.appspot.com/posts/how-megaupload-was-investigated-and-indicted http://nikcub.appspot.com/posts/how-megaupload-was-investiga... I hope this case makes it to a trial because I would like to find out what probable cause was used to obtain the warrant to handover the email server.

scott_s 15y ago
That's a rational, measured assessment. You bring up an excellent point at the end: if all of their evidence is from the emails, how did they get the warrant to obtain the emails? I submitted it, but it looks like you already did so last week, and it didn't get much attention. I hope more people can see it from this thread.
- nikcub 15y ago
  Thanks. I have resubmitted it, assuming that is ok to do. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3529536 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3529536 I have also been spending some time reading over the Viacom vs YouTube case. The parallels between it and Megaupload are striking - the difference being that Megaupload is a criminal case while YouTube was a civil case. I found that the YouTube internal emails were much more incriminating than the MegaUpload emails. I plan on writing up the details of the emails and other parallels between the two cases sometime this week.
- jonhendry 15y ago
  Maybe they had a source inside MegaUpload.
cookiecaper 15y ago
Another excellent argument to use encryption. It seems every couple of weeks there is another high-profile incident where a lot of trouble would have been saved if people had taken the time to set up Enigmail. I would also love to see some advances in client-side steganography that could be usable as easily as GPG. Probably the closest thing we have now is TrueCrypt hidden volumes but that doesn't really work for email.
- bri3d 15y ago
  Keeping encrypted data in the US is increasingly futile - see http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/judge-fifth-amendment-doesnt-protect-encrypted-hard-drives.ars http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/judge-fifth-... . Steganography is a good idea, though. (edited: corrected stenography -> steganography per too-aggressive spellchecker usage)
  - DanBC 15y ago
    > Stenography is a good idea, though. Steganography is provably secure but requires a lot of cover data and careful implementation. Steganography is less useful for most purposes than most people want.
    - cookiecaper 15y ago
      Unfortunately this is the case now. I am hoping that someone invents something that makes steganography more usable. "----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE----" is a little obvious for my taste, though of course encryption is much better than nothing.
  - cwp 15y ago
    I think you mean steganography. "Stenography" is writing down what someone is saying.
    - cookiecaper 15y ago
      Indeed, I should have paid more attention to my spell checker which does not recognize "steganography". Thanks.
Natsu 15y ago
The indictment mentions NinjaVideo as an affiliate of some sort. Given that they were recently taken down for criminal infringement, it is possible that they found something in their emails or whatever which they were able to use against MU. Assuming that's true, one would expect them to go after any affiliates of MU next, using the evidence they've gathered in this case.

trotsky 15y ago

So you're saying that a german national and convicted white collar criminal may have intentionally had his hundred million dollar plus company shuttered and himself and his employees held without bail so that he could force a legal showdown with the US government over whether or not he was adequately exploiting loopholes in the DMCA?

narag 15y ago

Last week I read somewhere that Megaupload ended owning the servers after a legal dispute ended with the bankrupcy of an american company called Alpha Red. That meant it started to be reachable by USA, as evidenced by a civil demand a year ago by https://www.perfect-10.tv/ https://www.perfect-10.tv/ http://www.hispalinux.es/sites/hispalinux/files/1-main.pdf http://www.hispalinux.es/sites/hispalinux/files/1-main.pdf http://www.hispalinux.es/sites/hispalinux/files/order%20perfect%2010%20megaupload.pdf http://www.hispalinux.es/sites/hispalinux/files/order%20perf... No sources for the rest, maybe someone knows something more.