scans_daily: Malum Discordiae : The FBI kills Megaupload

chocochuy (

chocochuy) wrote in

scans_daily,
@ 2012-01-19 08:31 pm UTC

Current location:	Genosha
Current mood:	busy
Current music:	Hands Off
Entry tags:	char: captain america/steve rogers, creator: frank miller

Malum Discordiae : The FBI kills Megaupload

Greetings, Ladies and Gentlemen! Chocochuy reporting for duty and bringing you some news from the global community.

As you might recall, yesterday was the peaceful blackout of pages like Wikipedia, Google, Mozilla and our very own Dreamwidth in order to protest against the SOPA bill. Well, just some hours ago Megaupload was shut down by the FBI, thus causing the arrest of its inner circle and the loss of countless Terabytes of both illegal and safe files. Retribution from hackers all over the globe was not denied and hours later the group that calls itself Anonymous hacked several government sites as well as asking all cybernauts to join their revolution against the rich 1%. It might be kinda exaggerated to say this but I am certain that were witnessing the genesis of the First World Internet War. In my honest opinion I think the loss of Megaupload may be a heavy loss for most cybernauts and it may also herald the beginning of some authoritarian movements if the FBI can go shutting down websites when the SOPA has not been approved yet. What we are really seeing is a struggle between two powerful forces, none of them wanting to give up, that will change the way we use the internet from now on if a peaceful solution is not found.

I will be glad to hear your opinions in this matter, comrades, especially if this SOPA bill goes out of control and tries targeting our beloved fanfics/fanarts.

Here is an old Captain America picture done by Frank Miller. It may be over-used but it seems quite fitting.

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	no subject jlbarnett 2012-01-20 03:44 am UTC (link)
	I'm pretty sure there are laws out there besides SOPA, which is actually looking less and less likely to pass from what I hear, which would allow the FBI to shut them down. (Reply to this) (Thread) (Hide 8 comments) (Show 8 comments)

	no subject mrstatham 2012-01-20 12:35 pm UTC (link)
	Isn't SOPA already dead thanks to Obama? I thought the next big one was PIPA or something along those lines? (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent) (Thread) (Expand) (Hide 7 comments) (Show 7 comments)

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the_phantom, 2012-01-20 01:20 pm UTC (Expand)

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freezer
2012-01-20 03:51 am UTC (link)

For all the wailing and gnashing of teeth... I'm just not feeling it.

I mean, I heard much the same outrage when the original Napster got shitcanned.

And The Pirate Bay.

And Grokster.

And Morpheus.

And (going way back) Audiogalaxy and The International Lyrics Server.

Of course, this is speaking as someone who's used MegaUpload maybe a dozen times in the last five years.

Life, and file sharing, will go on. and this wasn't the first salvo in an all-out war on file sharing (see above).

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	no subject v_various 2012-01-20 05:17 pm UTC (link)
	I remember back in the early 90's we got our pirated games from a friend with a dusty box full of disorganized unlabeled hard discs. Kind of wonderful how fast things are changing. (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent)

	no subject introverted_excavator 2012-01-20 04:04 am UTC (link)
	Something tells me things are about to get really nasty in the next couple of days/weeks and not in a particularly good way for either sides. (Reply to this)

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elf
2012-01-20 04:21 am UTC (link)

The loss of Megaupload (if it's "lost," rather than "temporarily blocked") won't be a big deal in the larger scheme of "anti-piracy" actions. Mediafire, Rapidshare, 4shared, Gigasize... there are dozens of other sites with similar features. "Store/share big files online" isn't going to get harder with Megaupload gone.

However, if anyonymous stays focused on gov't sites for a while, that'll really throw a wrench in things, because if twelve hours of server-tweaking doesn't fix things on their, they'll start looking for people to arrest. (Not that they won't be looking for people to arrest already, but it's a back-burner project now. If the FBI's website is down for a week, they'll start demanding arrest warrants for everyone who tweets the word #anonymous.)

I'd like to believe my gov't is not stupid enough to break the world wide web. I can't quite get there. I'm not, however, worried about the future of the internet, which existed before the www prefix. I'm rather delighted that all the attention is focused on the big fileshare sites, as if none of the previous methods existed.

Saw my first pro-SOPA/PIPA tv ad today. So *weird.* Fascinating how it didn't mention at all what kind of measures would be taken to end all this "foreign theft" that's destroying American businesses. Also interesting that they never mention that the actions that are so "destructive" may be entirely legal for the people who're doing them.

I suspect that if SOPA/PIPA get enacted (which I doubt, at this point) and start going after sites, fanfic/fanart are far, far down on the list of targets. They want to kill YouTube and ThePirateBay. Time to haul out the Cute Cat Theory of the Internet, and remind politicians that threatening obscure geeky hacker sites will go over just fine with most voters, but threatening the lolcats will get them thrown out of office.

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	no subject glimmung 2012-01-20 06:28 am UTC (link)
	SOPA is phenomenally stupid. Solves nothing and causes untold damage to a vibrant part of the US economy. (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent) (Thread) (Expand) (Hide 2 comments) (Show 2 comments)

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jlroberson, 2012-01-21 10:36 am UTC (Expand)

PS -

jlroberson, 2012-01-21 10:37 am UTC (Expand)

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arysteia
2012-01-20 04:22 am UTC (link)

My first reaction: a colossal spit-take all over my keyboard at the fact the big names were arrested here in NZ. And then I was embarrassed that our jackass right-wing government are so keen to ingratiate themselves with power players (see our anti-torrenting legislation for example).

In fairness though, I've downloaded many hundreds of files from MU, and every single one of them infringed copyright, so it's hard to muster *righteous* indignation. That said, I *did* assume the site owners/admins maintained better plausible deniability. I'm a bit surprised by how blase they appear to have been.

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	no subject rainspirit 2012-01-20 05:36 am UTC (link)
	Your country has a bad case of the right wing asshole government, too? :( And I thought Canada was having it bad. Bleh. (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent)

	no subject glimmung 2012-01-20 04:58 am UTC (link)
	I have next to no pity for the Megaupload folks. (Reply to this) (Thread) (Hide 2 comments) (Show 2 comments)

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jlroberson
2012-01-21 10:40 am UTC (link)

I remember at a recent day job, a much younger co-worker scoffed at me for keeping my files--including my music files(which are largely backups of my CD collection as I gradually sell it off) and my own art files--on external drives. "I just put all that shit on Megaupload," he said. "I'll never lose it like you will if your drives go down." Ignoring I also back THAT up to DVDs.

Well, who's laughing now, dude? ;)

If I'd taken his advice my whole career as an artist would be gone now.

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schmevil, 2012-01-21 06:11 pm UTC (Expand)

	no subject halloweenjack 2012-01-20 05:45 am UTC (link)
	Shut down one server, and two will rise to take its place. Hail Hydra! (Seriously, "cybernaut"? Dude.) (Reply to this) (Thread) (Hide 7 comments) (Show 7 comments)

	no subject chocochuy 2012-01-20 03:55 pm UTC (link)
	Considering the sudden increase of power of sites like Mediafire and Rapidshare, I would not be surprised if Hydra had a hand on all of this. By the way, cybernaut is a valid word. I know it is not used as much as one believes but it does imply those who surf the cyberspace. (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent) (Thread) (Expand) (Hide 6 comments) (Show 6 comments)

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salinea, 2012-01-20 04:15 pm UTC (Expand)

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	no subject weber_dubois22 2012-01-20 05:55 am UTC (link)
	From I've read, this looks like a kid acting out against the protest being made against a bad idea. They went after the first sharing website they could think of, looks like. I really shudder to think next what'll happen. I hope this bill doesn't get passed. (Reply to this) (Thread) (Hide 2 comments) (Show 2 comments)

	no subject glimmung 2012-01-20 06:24 am UTC (link)
	This has been in the works for months. A large multinational bust takes a long time to set up. (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent) (Thread) (Expand) (Hide 1 comment) (Show 1 comment)

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weber_dubois22, 2012-01-20 08:15 am UTC (Expand)

	no subject twomasks 2012-01-20 06:16 am UTC (link)
	What bothers me is that Swizz Beats (sp, the founder and board member) and an industry insider wasn't arrested or even implicated. Talk about favors being thrown around... (Reply to this) (Thread) (Hide 1 comment) (Show 1 comment)

	no subject introverted_excavator 2012-01-20 09:55 pm UTC (link)
	Except that Swizz Beats doesn't even own Megaupload? (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent)

	no subject big_daddy_d 2012-01-20 06:35 am UTC (link)
	If the FBI already has the power to shut down sites, then..what is the point in SOPA? (Reply to this) (Thread) (Expand) (Hide 9 comments) (Show 9 comments)

	no subject wyatt1048 2012-01-20 07:49 am UTC (link)
	A very good point, that probably won't be mentioned in any coverage. (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent) (Thread) (Expand) (Hide 4 comments) (Show 4 comments)

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icon_uk, 2012-01-20 08:06 am UTC (Expand)

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arise
2012-01-20 06:53 am UTC (link)

I'm against SOPA/PIPA as much as anyone, but I'm not really feeling the outrage. I'll miss MU for file uploading, but there are plenty of other options out there.

I'm surprised that the arrested are facing prison, though. I'd always assumed these sorts of things just attracted insanely heavy fines and civil measures.

Personally, I'm more alarmed by the whole Anonymous hijacking people's computers for a DDOS attack thing.

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baihu
2012-01-20 11:06 am UTC (link)

Mediafire was so much more convenient than MU. It was already a troublesome thing having to wait for the Free download speeds, but then it just kept putting more ads and Megavideos on their website when I just wanted to download one file.

Heck I saw more and more files that I wanted to download being put on other file-uploading sites. Megaupload may have been one of the originals, but it was no longer the 'go-to' website if you wanted to upload files. It got bigger than that until I had no idea what Megaupload was really for anymore to be honest.

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greenmask, 2012-01-20 02:35 pm UTC (Expand)

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wyatt1048
2012-01-20 07:48 am UTC (link)

I can't help but think tan Anonymous reaction is exactly what the law enforcement wants. Now that pirates are attacking the government, it lends weight to the argument that they need the SOPA/PIPA to keep them under control. I can't help but see this as a measured, carefully planned attack to justify draconian regulations (even though it shows that laws to police the internet are already in place. And that the whole world must obey US law, even if you never plan on going to America.)

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	no subject terabient 2012-01-20 09:36 pm UTC (link)
	I don't think it was planned in the sense that government people knew Anonymous would react in the way they did, but I do agree that SOPA/PIPA backers will use the takedowns to support their claims. :( (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent)

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lilacsigil
2012-01-20 08:19 am UTC (link)

I think this is the US government trying to kill net neutrality - Megaupload was always prompt in removing copyrighted content on request, as it was required to do. It's too hard to go after the millions of people sharing a few files at a time, so they're going after the content hosts. Google seems aware of this, at least, and they've got deep pockets to match the MPAA companies (which is what US lawmaking really comes down to).

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	no subject eyz 2012-01-20 11:01 am UTC (link)
	Oh, come on! I'll have to keep my work files on some other file sharing place then. (we've had lots of documents to share in the company here, so someone suggested megaupload, to avoid using our internal network and slowing everyone down) (Reply to this) (Thread) (Hide 6 comments) (Show 6 comments)

	no subject baihu 2012-01-20 11:07 am UTC (link)
	Uh, you really could only think of using Megaupload? Doesn't Google docs provide upload space and more security? Or something like Carbonite which is a back-up program. (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent) (Thread) (Expand) (Hide 5 comments) (Show 5 comments)

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drmcninja
2012-01-20 11:55 am UTC (link)

I honestly don't see how so many people are getting angry over this. Sure, yeah, most of the traffic may have been legitimate, but that doesn't matter. If I worked hard, 9 to 5, five days a week, selling stuff out of my house legally, but still let people sell dope out of my house, it doesn't matter that most of my income was legitimate. I was sanctioning, and in all likelihood knowingly, illegal activity, and did nothing to stop it. It does;t matter that most was legitimate. Then swizz is in no danger because he's a wealthy celebrity, and there are so many other options out there. I just don't see the problem.

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nomadicwriter
2012-01-20 03:09 pm UTC (link)

Yeah. From skimming the indictment, there were charges of racketeering and money laundering in addition to copyright infringement, the owners have been caught personally telling people how to locate pirated movies on their site and searching their own database for pirated stuff, they weren't complying with the notice and takedown law, and when companies reported copyright content they only removed the specific reported URL but kept the files on their systems. (Oh, and if you skip to the list of property in the back, the owners bought themselves personalised licence plates including "GUILTY", "HACKER", and "MAFIA". Smart!)

So this is not "some users uploaded copyright stuff on a file storage site", this is "the owners knew about it, encouraged it, did it themselves, made enormous amounts of money off it, bragged about it, and lied about removing the content when asked". ...I can't really summon a lot of outrage.

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	no subject thegrommit.livejournal.com 2012-01-20 02:50 pm UTC (link)
	There's a difference between "fair use" and "abuse". Megaupload profited more from the latter than they former. Conflating their demise with an attack on fanfic/fanart is a bit of a stretch IMO. (Reply to this) (Thread) (Hide 1 comment) (Show 1 comment)

	no subject chocochuy 2012-01-20 03:44 pm UTC (link)
	Agreed on that. I got caught by the moment and maybe exaggerated on the backlash of MU`s demise. (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent)

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turtlefu
2012-01-20 06:14 pm UTC (link)

As someone who has used MegaUpload legitimately (I used it to store a large quantity of photos I took and send them to relatives overseas), it bothers me that they felt MegaUpload was a valid enough threat to get destroyed.
And I'm extremely against SOPA/PIPA.
But this is just ABSOLUTELY over dramatic. "First Internet World War"? Anonymous sounds like a child who has no idea how governments, yet alone the rest of the world, even works
And you do NOT hack governments websites and servers! That is NOT Protest. The occupy movement is a protest! Hacking government websites causes real, tangible problems and threats to not only security but also people's jobs!

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	no subject chocochuy 2012-01-20 06:26 pm UTC (link)
	Agreed on the facts that this has gone out of control for both the Government and Anonymous. I know it sounded too over dramatic to imply a World Internet War but knowing how anonymous likes to operate, I would not doubt it started years ago. (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent)

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darkblade
2012-01-20 06:39 pm UTC (link)

While the legality and morality of taking down Megaupload can be debated what Anonymous is doing is taking things too damn far.

Particularly with using a website claiming to be a Megaupload backup to force would be supporters to launch DDoS attacks themselves through malware.

See more on this here: http://gawker.com/5877707/the-evil-new-tactic-behind-anonymous-massive-revenge-attack

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	no subject chocochuy 2012-01-20 06:53 pm UTC (link)
	Now that you mention it, yesterday there were sites suggesting the use of a new Megaupload back-up called "Megavideo.bz". Hours later there were reports of malware and dubious (and in some cases, unwilling) internet actions. (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent)

	no subject cyberghostface 2012-01-20 07:26 pm UTC (link)
	I remember reading "If SOPA passes, you can get five years for downloading a Michael Jackson song--one more than the doctor who killed him." (Reply to this)

	no subject sun_man 2012-01-20 09:20 pm UTC (link)
	the war has begun pick your sides (Reply to this) (Thread) (Hide 2 comments) (Show 2 comments)

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cainofdreaming
2012-01-20 09:56 pm UTC (link)

I'm with Forbush Man!

Ah well, if any variation of this goes through us in the rest of the world just have to cough up the cash for our own root servers. Costly, but it's an investment that pays itself back.

Just wish that our politics sphere wasn't equally big a snakepit as US of A's. They'd probably bend over backwards for a chance to get in on this.

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Irving Forbush is the Man with a Plan! -

chocochuy, 2012-01-20 10:22 pm UTC (Expand)

	no subject thehood 2012-01-20 10:29 pm UTC (link)
	Calm down, it had nothing to do With SOPA. Megaupload was underivestigation for 2 years now. Check the facts (Reply to this) (Thread) (Hide 1 comment) (Show 1 comment)

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chocochuy
2012-01-20 10:38 pm UTC (link)

As a matter of fact, it was also Megaupload`s fault for tempting fate too much. Still, this is bad news for those who merely used it as a cyber-locker for legal stuff. Alas, that cannot be solved completely.

Anyhow, it seems the SOPA/PIPA bills have been stopped for the moment (I am not gonna imply it was 100 % thanks to Anonymous, though). Maybe they will resurface one of these days.

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	no subject silverzeo 2012-01-20 11:54 pm UTC (link)
	I used MegaUpload to help find subs for an French Anime called Wakfu and other obscure shows... now I have rely on torrents that need compressers and what nots... (Reply to this)

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jlroberson
2012-01-22 07:18 am UTC (link)

I'd love to feel bad for the founder, but I mean, just read this account of how the arrest went down.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/21/kim-dotcom-megaupload-arrest_n_1220491.html

This guy was also an inside trader and embezzler. But I mean, he acted here like he was some tinhorn Tony Montana, and lived on a lavish estate. I have little pity for him.

I'm just glad I never, ever trust the Cloud.

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