sweasel.com

The mega people offered cash incentives to people to illegally upload copyrighted videos. They made their money by selling premium subscriptions. They stopped the incentives a couple of months ago when they saw the writing on the wall but still sold what they had to know would be worthless subscriptions.

As to those who used it for legitimate storage? I don’t know of any. If you have important files why store them with a business that you would have to be blind not to see that was breaking the law?

Other than that, the feds and entertainment companies unnecessary play hardball, e.g., going after young kids, grandmas, that college student in UK, sleezy filing of law suits in out of the way jurisdictions, etc. Those tactics are cringe worthy.

Bah. This is a perfect place for Kate’s Dictum (from Small Dead Animals:

You shouldn’t be choosing a side. You should be praying for a meteor strike.

Regards,
Ric

Well, I didn’t store much, But I had been storing podcasts on it. That is, podcasts I had made for my own site. Wasn’t aware that it was Offering incentives for illegal uploads at the time though. Bleh, I dislike All involved. Although the fact that the site was shutdown without a warrant(to my knowledge) slightly biases me.

Mono, the feds did have a warrant to seize their servers in Virginia. I don’t know about what happened in NZ. I assume they had to follow NZ law.

They should let those arrested out on bail. It’s sort of cheezy to hold them in custody. Then again, I am not familiar with NZ law. I think the feds might have a hard time actually extraditing them.

It bothers me that they used this ACTA treaty. It’s negotiated in secret and even the text is secret. I have never heard of anything like that.

Mono, sorry if I came across a little harsh. I just can’t see a business paying to store files on Mega.

I’m not real fond of the government and their brute tactics usually but in this case they really do seem to be the white hats. Megaupload was knowingly, deliberately storing copyrighted material, charging people for premium access, then not paying them for shares that people would download, and generally acting like jerks.

They really are bad guys. They weren’t just sitting around when mean people put stuff on their servers they were totally unaware of, the site was specifically about storing and sharing stuff, especially copyrighted stuff. It was a favorite of 4chan for transferring some of the most godawful stuff you can imagine, too.

Sorry. Sick of Hollywood. Sick of the music industry. Sick of venal, ignorant, corrupt politicians in the pockets of corporations. Sick of scam artists like Mr dotcom. Sick, above all, of lawyers. Wouldn’t trust the data from which I earn my living to a cloud, even if it was registered at iamgodnoreallyiam.com

Yes… I’m with Mr Locke. Bring on that meteor.

Redd, I actually Agree with with you. Both sides should lose. But something smells fishy with the NZ thing. I’ve since switched to youtube. (Easier file hosting that way. And you know, less arrests. ) Is this particular event, There are no good guys. Megaupload was doing illegal things. The government used SOPA tactics without warning (Or SOPA being law yet) I’m in favor of the meteor too.

Ahhh we’ve got serious problems with the USA in NZ. If it is not the murder of prime ministers Norman Kirk, or David Lange, it is the CIA and the USA state department trying to slip your laws through our Parliament, with American spelling and think tank file headers still in the files.

As for Dot-Com. He paid to get a safe residency here, and now the NZ govt is backing out on it. Others have also paid, however when the USA needs a political stunt, the rule of NZ law gets over-ridden. Meanwhile, other countries whom want to extradite real terrorists from the USA to face trial can’t, and even US troops that commit war crimes are immune from extradition.

So at the end of the day, this is just another sorry chapter in conflict between NZ and the USA.
It’s enough to the average Kiwi pick up a rifle and wander into the US consulate in Wellington for shits and giggles.

Oh that Treaty?
The one that was signed when Parliament was on Holiday? We still don’t know who signed which piece of paper to which treaty – so it really isn’t valid. The FBI came out before the last election, but our Jewish PM hushed things from the Police, to OFCANZ. Noone really knows what OFCANZ is, and Police officers who I know haven’t even heard of it till the story broke.
Anyway – it was all kept secret till after the election.
PM John Key has American, Israeli, Australian and NZ passports …. now how does that work?
NZ is known as the Gulag Archipelago. Dot-Com has broken no laws in this country, and hasn’t broken any laws in the US either. His servers are not located there. So which law has he broken specifically? Eh Sweasel?

PS: Google Makawao PM Key has a US residency there – but there is no Google St view in that particular neighbourhood in Hawaii – why is that?

Oh, and after this little Fiasco, don’t be at all surprised if your Echelon sat coms traffic and military communications are now being fed straight to Beijing, no questions asked.
If you think I’m anti-American, wait till you see the intel boys and girls that deal with this crap every day.

The best piece of advice I could give any American, is to stay out of other peoples, and countries businesses. China does, and that’s the mark of a good friend.

Sick, above all, of lawyers.

Oh. Oh, well, OK, then. Sorry. . .and thanks for all the fish.

Seems MU was actively engaging in practices, rather than partly-guilty-by-association like YouTune or Google, But, it is at least possible (if improbable) for MU to fight the tale-down. SOPA/PIPA, in the forms that were about to be put to a vote, would “simply” (HAH!) disappear accused (yes, accused: takes too much time and effort to prove) sites (and whoever had been hosting the sites) from Domain Name Servers.

An the basis? A “foreign” site that either had “illegal” content ir links to at lest one such site. Guess what – that is mot just MU, or many blogs, it is all news sources.

Discuss Climategate, and either include one of the contested EMails, or link to a site that does, one complaint and US servers must ban you. No more Times of London, or Der Spiegal, oe Stdney Morning Herald, or Aftenpost…

Those hacked emails were stored on their server.

Yes, it always starts with the richly deserving. Unfortunately, it never stops there.

Another biscuit to chew on: what about the hardware? The site is “infringing”, right? So the US Gubmint has a nasty habit of seizing things by, in effect, charging inanimate objects as criminals. Moronic, yes, but it flies again and again in US courts, and the hardware this beast runs on is probably worth a bundle.

Yes. They shut down the site,guilty or not (not saying which here) and Uncle Sugar sells the proceeds to its favorite re-seller. Same way the gubmint charges folks, seizes their property and then loses in court…if it ever gets to court. By then the citizen’s chances of getting their property back or properly compensated for it are essentially nil. The gubmint needs SOPA only in so far as it enshrines deliberate legal digital rape into law with gubmint blessing.
Hollywood likes it to preserve their dwindling hold on entertainmnent dollars. But they cant stop digital books.games and the content on line No more than liberals can compete in radio or Whorelywood can stop making sequels…craptastic retreads. If you cant compete in the field on an equal footing, call the gubmint.

That said,MU was a rip off and that fat jackleg needed to go to jail…NZ or US, that matters not. He was scum. NZ is welcome to him. And it’s not like this arrest tarnishes the good reputation of Wellington or whatnot, Doucheiania. What would you do ? Sic the NZ navy on the US agents that came over? Really…three guys named Nigel in a rowboat sporting .22 boltguns and a stern look weren’t going to Scum Dotcom from arrest. Get a grip and settle down. Ease back on the caffeine. Take a day off. Seriously.

I am opinionated and I approved this message…make that rant.

Douche-ania…as to China being a good neighbor and minding its own business and whatnot, well that’s great if all you stand to lose is bootleg copies of LOTR or the Crocodile Hunter. But since China has made its main objective espionage and industrial spying against America, your whining diatribes about countries minding their own business using Moa-land as your standard falls flat. Send your rowboat with three guys named Nigel and their stern looks to China. I’m very sure the Chins will remove every bootleg Peter Jackson movie and Sam Neill disc from their open air markets and the like. Wouldn’t want the Wrath of. Wellington on your head. Three guys named Nigel toting 22s and a taste for adventure. The Chins and America live in fear.
You’re a darn chucklehead.

The Mind Boggles.

I am not Herman Cain and I approved this message.

Firstly, the Crocodile Hunter is Australian. Nit. And LOTR is not really owned by by Kiwis. So there.
China has a neutral IP policy. A policy which is productive, as opposed to restrictive – like yours. The more you try to run around the world capturing people who you perceive to obstruct you – the more of us will appear.
Don’t forget, America steals most of the ideas which it needs to maintain its till recent technological lead.
You’ve invented very little, and fail to recognise other nations IP. We’ve even had Yanks in here trying to Patent native plants. So you can piss off down whatever hole you climbed out of.
As for your military, you have a track record worse than the French for winning wars … so you shouldn’t poke fun at nations that are peaceful, least you lose another.
As for China. To borrow the Yanky expression. THEY OWN YOU!

CHINA NUMBER ONE! USA CANNOT GET PENIS UP!

PS: He might be scum on your scale, but he has not committed an offence in NZ, and we certainly respect his rights as a NZ resident. Just remember, Americans have no rights anywhere in the World. You’re not popular anywhere. Why is that?

I smell a douche. You can keep Sam Neill. I know Steveo was an Aussie. I couldnt care less about Dotscum. Your right about us getting into these tiny piss ant wars in tiny piss Ant places. But those are political wars and not ones wanted by our military. I would know as I once was military. But unlike the French we dont quit or get our asses kicked. We only lose when our liberal political class gets involved. As for that we should be out of Afghanistinkhole and good for being out of Iraq. They can make up for lost time blowing each other to pieces.
As to you and your island…go to Australier and hang a right, go south kinda…you live close to China not me. If you have something the Chins want, they might come take it. Ask the Tibetans. If you think the Chins wouldn’t ghobble you flightless bird folks up like a tic tac, you really are

You really are a chucklehead. And a clueless one to boot. If you also dont think Chins arent conducting industrial espionage in your tiny island…youre delusional. And your three guys named Nigel, in their rowboat, with their 22s and stern looks will slow down the PLA for maybe an hour. Course if you like market economies and totalitarian states, this might be your kettle of fish. Just ask for Chin citizenship from the get go. You seem fairly bright. Mandarin or Cantonese will be easy for you. Remembee to bow a lot. Ethnic Tibetans prolly do a lot of bowing to your “good friend” the Chins. You can beat the rush and learn to bow and scrape now. Why wait.
One place the Chins could oveerun and I would feel no urge to help is your tiny island to the right and down from Terra Australis. The more I hear and read from you the less I care. Youre a chucklehead. A semi delusional one.

Youre an asshat. I approved this message. But not you.Chucklehead.

CHINA NUMBER ONE! USA CANNOT GET PENIS UP!

We’ve seen America, we didn’t like it. You interfere in our Country. You murder our leaders, you Subvert our Democracy.
You country will Fail, Be Divided and Vanquished.
Until that day comes, sit back and believe your Hollywood propaganda, keep starting wars you cannot win, and that you cannot pay for, and piss off more people!

PS: You don’t have any technology worth stealing.

MADE IN CHINA!

I am not far enough into my first coffee this morning to be able to deal with this crap.

Sorry, Arg…worked the graveyard shift and casual troll baiting helped pass the time. I know feeding the troll just makes it worse but reading its rabid anti American rhetoric is equivalent to watching chimps at the zoo flinging their pooh at the bars. I lurk here couple times a day. I go days or even weeks between posts. I get tired of that turd hook.running off at the keyboard. I kinda went off. I apologize for the timing but not for going at that turd.

I apologize for my timing but not content. I need coffee and I approved this message.

Y’all. 🙂

Good heavens, feel free, sandman.

I’m at a disadvantage in that I find our troll funnier than annoying (particularly when he starts Randomly Capitalizing Important Words), but I don’t much care what anyone else does. Suit yourselves.

S’alright Sandman, I’ve had more coffee and can scroll past the house-troll’s posts more quickly.

I was struggling to find the hidden meaning in the above picture of the weird guy with the bubbles and balloons. It is apparently an artistic representation of Oceania farting in the comment pool. Well done.

Sorry, Can’t Hark. It wasn’t meant personally. Well… it was, in the sense that I run up against some of the worst of them in my (also widely disparaged) profession and it’s not possible to add ‘except for the ones I like and who are all really decent types’ every time I tell a ‘how many lawyers…’ joke.

🙂 I knew that, Uncle Badger–I was just funnin’ wit’ ya. While I don’t think that the profession as a whole–or even the majority of it–is as bad as usually painted, I also understand fully why it has the reputation it does, and would concur that there is a significant minority which probably deserves that reputation.

I know you were teasing, Can’t Hark. Still, among my favorite bits of advice I’ve seen from Miss Manners (no doubt because it’s short enough to remember) is her response to someone on the receiving-end of a comment similar to UB’s re: lawyers, to wit:

“Present company is ALWAYS excepted”.

And it’s so much nicer than “Lighten up, Francis”!

I find the imagery on the Megaupload site telling.
The traditional old DOJ symbol with arrows in left talon, olive branch in right V. the “National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center” symbol. There’s no doubt about the intentions of THAT bird. He’s flaring for a landing with talons outstretched and his eyes are on you.

That’s why I bothered snagging the graphic, Davem. I thought it looked deliberately sinister and provocative. Also, how the fuck many logo’d agencies do we have? Or need?

That’s good, Can’t Hark. I’d hate to have been guilty of driving off our token liberal 😉

And now the real reasons come out

http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/6316487/InternetNZ-impressed-by-Megauploads-legitimate-plans

Not to worry, Uncle B, ever. I’m virtually impossible to offend, and believe me it has been tried by experts. And, Alice–true enough, as a general rule, and certainly in this case.

New Zealand’s extradition treaty with the US ” … requires the individual for whom extradition is sought to have been physically in the United States when the crime there was committed.”

“Also, how the fuck many logo’d agencies do we have? Or need?”

Good topic for a book. The expansion and arrogance of our government is amazing to behold, especially from the inside. Much like with people, often the smaller and less significant the agency, the greater the arrogance. What kind of idiot would look at that logo and think “Yeah, that’s cool.”

I always wondered about the cloud computing bullshit. If you let something out of your hands, you no longer have any control over where it goes or who does what with it. Seems stupid to me to just assume “the cloud” will play nice.

“Careful with that axe, Eugene”

Saucer Full of Secrets.

China has a neutral IP policy. A policy which is productive, as opposed to restrictive – like yours.
Neutral for anyone with power. Highly restricted and censored for the little people. Don’t try to pump up China like they are the good guys. They aren’t. That being said…

The more you try to run around the world capturing people who you perceive to obstruct you – the more of us will appear.
I agree. And I also don’t know why we think we have that right, anyway. Does the internet belong to us?

I recall a few months back that there was outrage – OUTRAGE, I tell you – at the story of the guy who committed a crime of lese majeste ont he taiwanese king and was arrested for what he said when he went to that country. Remember that? How, exactly, is this any different? He committed no crime in the country that he was in. His only crime was a criminal act in the USA, BUT HE WASN’T IN THE USA. How, exactly, did we get the right to be world police and go to other countries and arrest people for doing things that are completely legal there? Are we sending teh DEA to Amsterdam next?

Don’t forget, America steals most of the ideas which it needs to maintain its till recent technological lead.
Tomatoe, tomahto. We stole our rocket technology from the Germans, but we made it to the moon first (and only). Who gives a shit who came up with the idea? It’s what you do with it that counts. That is why Edison is famous and Tesla is not so much – Tesla might have had great ideas but had no idea how to communicate them or market them. An idea is only as good as its implementation. A guy may very well have figured out how to create cold fusion by now, but if he does nothing with the knowledge, it does exactly fuck-all for the rest of us. The guy that implements it properly is the guy that wins. I’m sorry you don’t like that, but it is the truth.

You’ve invented very little, and fail to recognise other nations IP. We’ve even had Yanks in here trying to Patent native plants.
Fair enough, but my point above stands – if you Kiwis have native plants that are useful, and it takes a Yank coming there and doing stuff with them to figure that out, what does that say about Kiwis? Just curious. Again, you might have had the plant, but if it does have a use, the yank would have been the guy to figure it out and make it useful. Why do you get to claim the plant simply because you’ve been living among it for years without realizing it’s potential, while the guy that figured out the potential is a bad person for trying to profit off of that?

So you can piss off down whatever hole you climbed out of.
Hey, I’m not the one living on the ass-end of planet Earth, pal.

As for your military, you have a track record worse than the French for winning wars …
I guess I’m not with you on this one. Which wars did we lose again? Vietnam, aaaaannnnnd?

so you shouldn’t poke fun at nations that are peaceful, least you lose another.
I agree. It pisses me off that my government walks around talking tought all the time, and it takes guys like me and my peers to weapon up and go bail their asses out when they talk too tough. I don’t want to die to appease the ego of our government. Fuck them.

As for China. To borrow the Yanky expression. THEY OWN YOU!
Are you sure? Consider that the debtor is owned as much by the debtee as the other way around… Think about it for a second. If push comes to shove, and China calls up our debt… what then? We tell them to go fuck themselves. They instantly go as bankrupt as the definition of that word will allow. Us? Not so much. We’d have to cut back on some social programs, and would probably not be able to get a loan from anyone else for a while, but we’d come out okay. I submit that WE own CHINA. Not that I think this is a good thing, either way – our massive debt is another reason i am pissed at our government.