To add insult to injury, the US government is asking New Zealand to arrest the owners of Megaupload. So not only are they using the SOPA/PIPA acts that haven't even passed yet, but they're stretching US law into other countries.

I know this type of conduct is nothing new but its blatantly out in the open and wrong on so many levels...

Fortunately not all politicians agree with this bs:

http://wyden.senate.gov/issues/issue/?id=417403d2-468a-47a6-863f-946b5dbe4a6a

This is only the start o the end of internet as we know.

Will dropbox follow?

@fetzu

Can I ask stupid question?

Why US can close internet resources, confiscate servers around the world and arrest people in other countries.

I can even anwer you this.

Without fear and horror spreading to support "copyright", US economy will collapse much faster.

Yeah, imagine if US citizens could be extradited to any other country and be tried by the laws of that country for alleged crimes which might not exist in the US? It seems we want to drag everyone here and bring them into the realm of law, but really, really don't want the opposite to happen - can't have it both ways and who wants to unilaterally act as the world's moral police, especially when the laws being enforced were written by limited pro-business interests.

We have a system of copyright here not to protect business but out of the Constitution and its copyright clause.

"To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries."

We originally had a system of copyright which allowed for a very limited (7 years, and then 14) monopoly, which was seen as absolutely necessarily so that when our country had only a handful (three or four) of printing presses, they'd have some way of making back the large amounts of capital it would take to set a press up for map making or the like. Now we have a system in which we have billions of printing presses, copying doesn't have a cost, and 'all rights reserved' does little to encourage the progress of science or the useful arts.

Just think about it, we have academic journals full of research that was funded by public research money, that academics want to be published and read as widely as possible, but that are locked up in private 'all rights reserved' vaults for only some to read, just for the sake of making a few people rich and with such great cost. We could have a great library, greater than any library in history, full of all of the research, art, and knowledge of the world, but instead we are protecting Mickey Mouse for a thousand years, so that private interests can continue to make money and power.

I'm not well-versed with the specifics of the Megaupload case yet, but within the US we do have a safe harbor law under the DMCA, which basically means if you do not know piracy is occurring, and don't look for it, your obligation is to remove it when it is brought to your attention - but the questions we should be asking shouldn't be legal or technical ones, but rather: what sort of system do we want to build in the world that promotes art and science, and what should we be willing to invest into that system?

Limited monopolies through copyright are an investment, and by increasing that investment with a longer term, are we getting more than if the term was shorter, or if we had "some rights reserved" instead of "all rights reserved?" Typically, when we make larger investments, we get something more out of that investment. If we increase the budget of a fire department, we get better protection against fire. Does extending copyright to life + 70 years do anything to encourage people to make more art, or investigate more scientifically? And if so, is that still true of art made before the extension? How does locking up past creativity for longer give us that? We can't incentivize backwards through time, only forward, that I know of at least.

Fundamental for me is this notion, something we live on this board: the work that I do will help others, and I am helped by the work of others in the past. Any creative work I make is indebted to so, so many people and could not have occurred through my 'creative thought' alone. Why not share it with the world, and have a rule of law which serves people rather than corporations?

I say, let's worry less about playing God and punishing people, and more about building a better system for compensating artists, which is something that I think everyone wants to do.

@Vitaliy_Kiselev

I never said what the USA was right. But it is legal, there are international laws in bilateral agreements in place. It is not a matter of fear and horror, it is a matter of law.

I'll repeat that I don't condone these actions, as a matter of fact I am a member of a certain number of private trackers and don't, for one, believe in copyright as it exists. But this guy made MILLIONS (indirectly) selling work of others; he wan't the lambda torrent user sharing the rip to the latest michael mann flick..

This is starting to sound a lot like the Polanski fiasco we had here in Switzerland last year (or was it two years ago), with everyone jumping on their high horses saying "it is scandalous, the US is making their law all across the globe" but forgetting the fact that the guy admitted to have raped a 14 years old girl and fled while under bail..

I mean common look at this Kim Dotcom character's biography, he deserves at least a few years in jail for all this shit. It is clearly a stunt move related to the whole SOPA/PIPA crap, it is clearly an abuse of power by the US.. but common, don't tell me the guy never saw it coming!

(And, by the way, where was everyone when TPB was raided years ago? I didn't see so many people outraged by the incident..)

I don't understand, how am I attacking personality? I'm stating facts: the guy made hundred of millions selling access to copyrighted material, made 1.5 millions with inside trading.. those are all illegal, unethical and immoral things.

The people from RIAA, MPAA and law officials may be defending the wrong idea; but their actions remain legal (even though they probably are unethical and immoral).

Sadly that is the way our modern rule of law, governed by money rather than ethics, works. Copyright is all to their advantage, so damn sure they'll make sure it is respected..

You are attacking personality. All he did is made file sharing and video sharing things. It is up to users to upload something and share the link. I am also sure that HP, Dell, Lenovo and Cisco also made millions on this. Nuke them?

I can tell you this. Things that you call the law, is not the law by definition. As this had been paid by same guys to become "law", same guys use WTO to enforce agreements and same guys use it to hunt down anyone who prevents making huge money from selling digital content. This guys make more damage than all murderers combined. They just jave better suites and can talk in betetr language. But all of them must have same fate as mass murderers.

@VK

Wouldn't you agree that his accumulation of wealth has something to do with the fact that we could stream every episode of Seinfeld off of Megavideo for small fee until yesterday? Episodes that were obviously not worth anything in terms of quality of viewing (horrible resolution, laggy playback on slower connections etc.). We just viewed the creative content.

@fetzu

are we flaming democracy now?? I was unaware of what i was getting myself into :p

If you'll look closely the rhetoric is just as strong on both sides of this argument. Blogs can decry all the want, but these laws could act in their best interest.

Hey guys, Royal Mail, US Post all make multi millions per year providing a service that allows copyrighted material to be distributed, and evn other illegal items and substances.

LET'S SHUT THEM DOWN TOO!

Doesn't DMCA safe harbour protect operators from this kind of legal action anyway? It seems Megaupload are being held as a political example to the other sites, like Rapidshare, so that they will be more willing to play by the US law.

Agreed completely, Vitaliy.