Malum Discordiae : The FBI kills Megaupload

[chocochuy]

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.

Comments

[jlbarnett]

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.

[freezer]

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).

[introverted_excavator]

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.

[elf]

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.

[arysteia]

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.

[glimmung]

I have next to no pity for the Megaupload folks.

[halloweenjack]

Shut down one server, and two will rise to take its place. Hail Hydra!

(Seriously, "cybernaut"? Dude.)

[weber_dubois22]

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.

[twomasks]

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...

[big_daddy_d]

If the FBI already has the power to shut down sites, then..what is the point in SOPA?

[arise]

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.

[wyatt1048]

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.)

[lilacsigil]

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).

[eyz]

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)

[drmcninja]

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.

[thegrommit.livejournal.com]

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.

[turtlefu]

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!

[darkblade]

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

[cyberghostface]

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."

[sun_man]

the war has begun pick your sides

[thehood]

Calm down, it had nothing to do With SOPA. Megaupload was underivestigation for 2 years now.

Check the facts

[silverzeo]

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...

[jlroberson]

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.