This whole affair has been pretty terrible. But what makes it so profoundly tragic to me is-- I see no reason to believe that anyone involved will learn a lesson. That anyone will be punished, or that the US government won't continue to escalate along these lines.
IP enforcement needs to be a civil matter, not a criminal matter. Further, the level of incompetence here makes me question how many legitimate criminal matters are being fumbled as well.
fully agreed - the problem is exactly that "shoot first ask questions later" attitude and as you rightly mentioned the complete lack of accountability seemingly some of those involved here are assuming to be applied to this like with other dubious activities in the recent past.
I think the only lesson here is that if you operate a site like megaupload the gov't will come down on you like a ton of bricks whether it is against the law or not. So if you operate some kind of scumbag business like megadownload you might get your house raided by a swat team and your business shut down.
I understand that what the gov't is doing is technically wrong but Kim is a scumbag and a con artist so I have a hard time getting upset about it. He is getting rich by selling content had absolutely no hand in the creation of and has no rights to. Megaupload was not like youtube, and Kim is just a leech on society.
If people want to operate some kind of not for profit piracy site that is one thing, it is another thing when they are making a fortune selling content they do not have the rights to.
The bigger issue is the huge amount of power the government has to kill businesses at whim with no recourse.
"The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all." -- HL Mencken
The government isn't discerning between "not for profit" piracy and "for profit" piracy. In fact, they're not even focused on "piracy" at all. If this is allowed to stand without any kind of recourse or punishment, there would then be a precedent that allowed the government to shut down any company at any time for any reason without the due process of law anywhere in the world. It's naive to think that wouldn't get abused.
Once you have looked behind the curtain of government wheeling and dealing at such multi-billion situations you tend to believe that what Kim Schmitz is telling might actually be the closest we get to the truth.
Now we should all think about how such a case would/will be handled in a few years time based on the changes to civil rights / Internet regulations / totalitarian powers currently in the pipeline across most western societies.
2015:
I guess you will not hear about it other that a few of those who lost their files and were not immediately constraint with gag orders will mentioning it on some low frequented boards. Sites like TorrentFreak will then immediately taken off the net / silenced by gag orders.
A brave new world we are looking forward to - the .... are just practicing in the moment and will eventually get better over time.
You disagree that people shouldn't have privacy when accessing information on the Internet? Perhaps to make an informed vote without persecution and intimidation?
There's one example: "ECPA is actually fairly strict. It would be both illegal and tortious for Google to, for example, share the entire contents of your Gmail archives with the MPAA, currently. But after CISPA passes, it would be neither illegal nor a tort."
I'm sorry, but CISPA erodes privacy of the people. Otherwise, what's the purpose of the bill then? tptacek doesn't even say except attack the anti-CISPA advocates saying that it's nothing new. There's an appropriate quote for that:
"A claim that is nonsense on its face. Even if you knew absolutely nothing about any of the issues involved, the claim that the government is busy making legislation that does nothing is nonsensical."
> Once you have looked behind the curtain of government wheeling and dealing at such multi-billion situations you tend to believe that what Kim Schmitz is telling might actually be the closest we get to the truth
Are you aware that he has numerous convictions for things such as trafficking in stolen goods, embezzlement, and insider trading? About the only times he appears to have not been actively working on a new criminal enterprise are when he's still on parole from a previous criminal enterprise and needs to keep clean. I see no reason to believe anything that man says.
Hollywood has made the FBI its bitch because both
1) It contributes $billions to the economy
2) It contributes a few thousand dollars to congressional re-election campaigns
Hollywood is certainly a dying industry, but right now it is the one bright spot on an otherwise fairly bleak economic landscape. So some genius thought up this idea of going after Megaupload.
This was way outside normal FBI protocol, and they're paying a HUGE price for it in credibility, public support, and so on.
Basically they've given Kim Dotcom, who as far as I can tell is a gigantic douche bag, MARTYR status as well as an enormous soap box. And a healthy serving of pity from the hacker community.
I'm sure the rank and file FBI are royally pissed that this has transpired. I mean, they didn't sign up with the FBI to bust start-up assholes and do the dirty work of Hollywood, they signed up to fight the bad guys and protect the USA. And to mess the case up like this is just a shame. And a travesty. I can't imagine that this case is doing good things for FBI morale.
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[ 4.7 ms ] story [ 72.2 ms ] threadIP enforcement needs to be a civil matter, not a criminal matter. Further, the level of incompetence here makes me question how many legitimate criminal matters are being fumbled as well.
I understand that what the gov't is doing is technically wrong but Kim is a scumbag and a con artist so I have a hard time getting upset about it. He is getting rich by selling content had absolutely no hand in the creation of and has no rights to. Megaupload was not like youtube, and Kim is just a leech on society.
If people want to operate some kind of not for profit piracy site that is one thing, it is another thing when they are making a fortune selling content they do not have the rights to.
"The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all." -- HL Mencken
Now we should all think about how such a case would/will be handled in a few years time based on the changes to civil rights / Internet regulations / totalitarian powers currently in the pipeline across most western societies.
2015:
I guess you will not hear about it other that a few of those who lost their files and were not immediately constraint with gag orders will mentioning it on some low frequented boards. Sites like TorrentFreak will then immediately taken off the net / silenced by gag orders.
A brave new world we are looking forward to - the .... are just practicing in the moment and will eventually get better over time.
The people lose again.
I'm sorry, but CISPA erodes privacy of the people. Otherwise, what's the purpose of the bill then? tptacek doesn't even say except attack the anti-CISPA advocates saying that it's nothing new. There's an appropriate quote for that:
"A claim that is nonsense on its face. Even if you knew absolutely nothing about any of the issues involved, the claim that the government is busy making legislation that does nothing is nonsensical."
Are you aware that he has numerous convictions for things such as trafficking in stolen goods, embezzlement, and insider trading? About the only times he appears to have not been actively working on a new criminal enterprise are when he's still on parole from a previous criminal enterprise and needs to keep clean. I see no reason to believe anything that man says.
Hollywood has made the FBI its bitch because both 1) It contributes $billions to the economy 2) It contributes a few thousand dollars to congressional re-election campaigns
Hollywood is certainly a dying industry, but right now it is the one bright spot on an otherwise fairly bleak economic landscape. So some genius thought up this idea of going after Megaupload.
This was way outside normal FBI protocol, and they're paying a HUGE price for it in credibility, public support, and so on.
Basically they've given Kim Dotcom, who as far as I can tell is a gigantic douche bag, MARTYR status as well as an enormous soap box. And a healthy serving of pity from the hacker community.
I'm sure the rank and file FBI are royally pissed that this has transpired. I mean, they didn't sign up with the FBI to bust start-up assholes and do the dirty work of Hollywood, they signed up to fight the bad guys and protect the USA. And to mess the case up like this is just a shame. And a travesty. I can't imagine that this case is doing good things for FBI morale.