Megaupload: A Lot Less Guilty Than You Think

Even if I don't trust the justice system in the US I really hope that the FBI will fail their investigation and will have wasted a ton on money on this. Even better that they are found convicted of wrongfully use of power or something approaching that.<p>(I never said that Megaupload is innocent though, but I like well followed procedures, they are the guardians of our liberties)

If you think MU is the victim here and that the FBI are the criminals, you’ve got it backwards.<p>They took down individual links only, while still keeping the infringing files on the server, and all the other un-reported links to that exact file (they also hashed each upload, so to detect duplicates, and complete the upload instantly and have 1 data file... a fingerprint system they never used to prevent re-uploads of copyrighted material that was reported).<p>Then they conspired (shown in leaked emails) to only follow DMCA requests coming from large US entities (while ignoring requests coming from Mexico, for example).<p>Their entire business revolved around tricking people into signing up for paid accounts so they could download copyrighted material. And made 175 million from it.

From what I've read about Dotcom he seems like a shady guy. But in all honesty, how is he worth persuing over some drug cartel in a different country. (Note: I'm not making an opinion on whether drugs should be legal or illegal). Was it really worth the potential international relations fiasco, dollars spent on investigators; agents et al. All this wasted time and money to go after a set of people who have allowed internet users to write 1's and 0's and share them.<p>Oh the humanity! How can these people be allowed to live. /s<p>The time for cyber villans is not now, when the streets are still full of their ancestors.

This is crucial: the difference between the state of mind (mens rea) requirement for the criminal charges, and the clear(!) violations of the civil statutes at hand.<p>Even if, for some reason, this isn't getting Megaupload off the hook, it's worth remembering why exactly this isn't going to (gasp!) destroy that "cloud" thing everyone keeps writing about.

Wasn't this article up on HN a couple of days ago from another site?

What kind of DMCA system did Megaupload provide? And what kind of DMCA system is required by law?

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?

very good.