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Megaupload.com shut down by Feds

In this case it's not just copyright infringement, it was used as a method of laundering money. Odds are, until SOPA is passed, it was the money laundering that got the attention of the Feds and led to the site being shut down.
 
Ah &^*()*(....!

I had my Command and Conquer Red Alert 1 mod there. Any one else know a place I could put it up at? This is what I get for having to use some pirate infested place... The Command and Conquer community don't care for the old Command and Conques like we care about the old FSes and CFSes.
 
"Kim Dotcom, a.k.a. Kim Schmitz, a 37-year-old resident of Hong Kong and New Zealand... was arrested in New Zealand by New Zealand authorities."

Heh heh, Kim lives just down the road, and was a, shall we say, controversial personality around here.
His Rolls Royce carries the personalised registration: GOD
His sidekick #1 has: SATAN
and sidekick #2: JESUS
​
:barf:

He renamed himself dotcom at the same time as a sign went up at the gate of the mega-mansion he rents, proclaiming: ​
dotcom mansion​

Bye Bye Kim ​
:toilet:

​
 
stansdds said:
In this case it's not just copyright infringement, it was used as a method of laundering money. Odds are, until SOPA is passed, it was the money laundering that got the attention of the Feds and led to the site being shut down.
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My understanding was that Obama and a majority of the House were indicating they were not happy about SOPA in it's current format. Frankly it scares the bejaysus out of me.

Oh, and before anybody comments, I am not defending piracy or the fact that a lot of files on Megaupload are presumably pirated. There are other aspects to those bills that worry me, but as any discussion of that would be deemed political I will not make any further comment.
 
AndyG43 said:
My understanding was that Obama and a majority of the House were indicating they were not happy about SOPA in it's current format. Frankly it scares the bejaysus out of me.
Click to expand...

Those that backed the bill, including Obama, are getting cold feet after seeing the public reaction. As I understand it, many of the entertainment big-wigs have told Obama that if he doesn't get SOPA passed, they will not be contributing to his reelection campaign.

I fully understand trying to stop piracy and copyright infringement, but in doing so I would not want to see the internet become an empty wasteland. SOPA is way to broad in scope and basically assumes guilt without investigation. All one would have to do is report a site as hosting copyrighted materials and the government shuts it down, then it is up to the site owner to prove innocence, which could take months. SOPA is way too broad, too vague, and open to massive abuse.
 
wombat666 said:
Yawn ....................... :sleep:
Click to expand...

Yep, that works.

SOH is the next target, because we SHARE! They only want us to CONSUME, NOT SHARE, as in IDEAS, FIXES, thoughts, and we point to others.

If you don't think the politicians and big entertainment (the people behind this BULLS**T) can't, and especially WON'T, you are sadly mistaken, my friend.

And just speaking out against piracy isn't enough, in their eyes. "You know about piracy?? You're GUILTY!!" That's how they, and their crooked lawyers, work.
 
All one would have to do is report a site as hosting copyrighted materials and the government shuts it down, then it is up to the site owner to prove innocence, which could take months.
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....Hmmmm...living in the Soviet Union or Communist China a few decades ago, all it would take was a word of suspicion from an irate and anonymous neighbour, you'd be tossed in the clink without a hearing. I wonder how many North Americans would tolerate that kind of garbage, and for how long...?

SOPA is way too broad, too vague, and open to massive abuse.
Click to expand...
Kind of like fixing a small cut on the finger by amputating the whole arm. Imagine having our entire flightsim hobby shut down because of a third party implicating a broad violation of copyrights owned by Microsoft. That'd be any FS file altered and destributed without specific permissioin. I could be prosecuted for fiddling and air file and posting the flight model on this forum.

SOPA needs to be massively fine tuned, and levied without influence from any special interest groups. It's a real case were justice must be blind in every way. Without that, it'll just be global defiance, as usual, and a waste of tax dollars while a few high profile prosecutions are conducted and all others move off shore.
 
magoo said:
....Hmmmm...living in the Soviet Union or Communist China a few decades ago, all it would take was a word of suspicion from an irate and anonymous neighbour, you'd be tossed in the clink without a hearing. I wonder how many North Americans would tolerate that kind of garbage, and for how long...?
Click to expand...

Weeeell, they tolerated McCarthy for a good few years!
 
Weeeell, they tolerated McCarthy for a good few years!
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.....McCarthy's a really good example. Note how many promising and high profile carreers were absolutely destroyed, and then how McCarthy himself fell so hard. I wonder if anybody's ever tried to calculate the tax money wasted, the resulting lost productivety, the loss of credibility and prestige to the USA/American culture due to McCarthy's innitiatives?

Media corporations are slinging their weight around because their environment has changed, and continues to change in a manner that totally threatens their survival. That part is completey understandable. But there's no logical reason that the average Joe on the street should give up a huge degree of of media based freedom so these clowns can continue to line their pockets while serving up highly restrictive low grade entertainment.

The environment has changed ireversabley, the profit Darwin presides, SOPA or not, the global population will not give back a single inch of the new freedoms they're enjoying for the first time in history. The big question is how badly does the US Government wish to pull a McCarthy....and do they wish to create the general fear and loathing and financial waste it will generate at a time when western economies are already awash with those very negative values. How much more social straw to break the camel's back...?

Bad idea at a bad time.
 
Good point, Megaupload's present "non-condition" has nothing to do with the SOPA innitiative.
 
Prowler1111 said:
Do anybody notices the fact that it was a MONEY LAUNDRY operation??

Prowler
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And Al Capone was jailed for tax evasion, because that was all they could pin on him at the time. The timing is too convenient, the day after the Wiki-led blackout.

But I won't comment any more on this matter, in case I say things I regret.
 
I wonder if Blue Sky Scenery will reupload his thousands of scenery tiles somewhere else now. If not, I'll really be bummed out, because I just recently started collecting them. :(
 
Prowler1111 said:
Do anybody notices the fact that it was a MONEY LAUNDRY operation??
Click to expand...
Well exactly.
Modern savvy criminals perch themselves on the fringe of populist movements for this very reason.
(You'll notice how quickly this discussion got into SOPA)
When Megaupload got shut down, Anonymous started a denial of service attack on the US Justice Dept website.
Huh?
Kim is a career criminal, convicted in Germany of the biggest insider trading fraud in their history.
Why we let him into NZ is a complete mystery.
Police found - get this, I am supposing it is not a misprint - US$175m in cash, when they raided his home.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/6293542/Police-find-gun-as-internet-millionaire-arrested
The only way I know of, to collect that much cash, is to peddle methamphetamine or similar.
It will be an interesting trial...
 
Wing_Z said:
Well exactly.
Modern savvy criminals perch themselves on the fringe of populist movements for this very reason.
(You'll notice how quickly this discussion got into SOPA)
When Megaupload got shut down, Anonymous started a denial of service attack on the US Justice Dept website.
Huh?
Kim is a career criminal, convicted in Germany of the biggest insider trading fraud in their history.
Why we let him into NZ is a complete mystery.
Police found - get this, I am supposing it is not a misprint - US$175m in cash, when they raided his home.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/6293542/Police-find-gun-as-internet-millionaire-arrested
The only way I know of, to collect that much cash, is to peddle methamphetamine or similar.
It will be an interesting trial...
Click to expand...

We refused Mr. Kim entry and hand balled him off to you lot.....................:icon_lol:
Payback time!
 
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