SydLexia.com - The Forums :: View topic

Joined: Jun 08 2010 Location: Termina Field Posts: 1541

SoldierHawk wrote:

^ Now. When they say "take down," I had assumed they just meant blocked it for people in the US, since it violates US law. Is that not the case?

Actually, they took the site down completely. I can't even access it, and I don't live in the US.

I don't really care about them being taken down, since they were terrible, and so was that song they made.

Title: Electric Sex Pants Joined: Dec 30 2009 Posts: 199

These new bills are SOPAthetic and I don't wanna hear a PIPAtta them.

*groan*

Posted: Jan 19 2012 11:04 pm

Actually, I'm still rather neutral on the whole SOPA/PIPA issue. Even though I oppose the bills strongly, I strongly believe that people should pay for music, video games, movies, TV shows, etc. In fact, the ultimate reason I oppose those bills, and correct me if I'm wrong, please, is because I personally believe that those bills are an affront to due process.

In fact, instead of continuing the pursuit against the people making illegal downloads and uploading illegal content, the bills proposed to pretty much punish all the websites and block them out. It's personally unfair to the more law-abiding people, such as myself, and I won't stand for such action. The only fair thing to do is continue that pursuit.

Title: Electric Sex Pants Joined: Dec 30 2009 Posts: 199

Found this and figured you'd all enjoy.

Posted: Jan 19 2012 11:13 pm

Keep in mind, kids, this site was taken down legally under current laws.

Title: Electric Sex Pants Joined: Dec 30 2009 Posts: 199

Megaupload/video? I thought it was in Hong Kong, though. How can the U.S take down something in Hong Kong?

Posted: Jan 19 2012 11:21 pm

Boonjovi wrote:

Megaupload/video? I thought it was in Hong Kong, though. How can the U.S take down something in Hong Kong?

Like I said in my last post, if you'd read the linked article it says they had servers in the US. That means the US can pursue them to the ends of the Earth because they broke Federal Law. Pretty stupid on their part, they were pretty much immune if they hadn't been dumbasses.

Title: Electric Sex Pants Joined: Dec 30 2009 Posts: 199

Missed that, my apologies. I suppose that makes sense, it really was stupid on their part.

Similar to a WoW private server I used to play on. Blizzard typically doesn't do much about private servers, unless they're making money off of what they're doing. I played on World of Opportunities and it was great, then they started selling overpowered gear or real money. Within 2 weeks they were shut down.

/facepalm

Posted: Jan 19 2012 11:31 pm

Ky-Guy wrote:

Actually, I'm still rather neutral on the whole SOPA/PIPA issue. Even though I oppose the bills strongly...

????? Neutral, yet you strongly oppose the bills? Doesn't sound neutral to me...

Boonjovi wrote:

Found this and figured you'd all enjoy.

I love Conspiracy Keanu.

Title: Titlating Joined: Dec 17 2007 Posts: 5042

Yes see, I'm bummed that it was shut down but that's because I used it to watch things illegally. So I am not a bit surprised that it shut down, especially because they charged for higher tier memberships. Making money off your illegal distribution, intentional or not, is short sighted.

Like I said I would love free distribution of IPs. I don't know how that will happen but I do know that how it's done now won't work.

Posted: Jan 19 2012 11:58 pm

@om*d wrote:

Ky-Guy wrote:

Actually, I'm still rather neutral on the whole SOPA/PIPA issue. Even though I oppose the bills strongly...

????? Neutral, yet you strongly oppose the bills? Doesn't sound neutral to me...

Fair enough. I was merely saying that even though I oppose SOPA, I also oppose piracy, though.

Posted: Jan 20 2012 12:22 am

This Megaupload thing is irritating. And by irritating, I mean I'm tired of hearing manchildren bitch about free speech because their favorite illegal material site went down. Deal with it! They broke the fucking law!

Posted: Jan 20 2012 01:02 am

The people who used it to store legal files for whatever reason shoulda known better.

Posted: Jan 20 2012 01:11 am

I think the whole thing, and especially the timing of it, was a fairly political move in all honesty.

Posted: Jan 20 2012 02:56 am

The-Excel wrote:

The people who used it to store legal files for whatever reason shoulda known better.

Ah, how should we have known better? Nearly every filehost is used for some illegal material, whether people are aware of it or not. And I've frequently found it necessary to share various files I'm working on with others, for which file hosting sites are very beneficial.
Is there a better, ubiquitous alternative that I'm missing?

Banned Joined: Sep 13 2008 Posts: 3129

Something I'm wondering.

If the megaupload has been shut down, have the servers been seized?
If so, then I wonder if they'll search them trying to find logs of what IP's uploaded what and what IP's downloaded what. (assuming such logs were kept)

If those two things are both true, I have to wonder to what extent they'll try and prosecute people.

Just something I'm thinking.

Wizard Joined: Jun 12 2009 Posts: 4209

Shardea wrote:

The-Excel wrote:

The people who used it to store legal files for whatever reason shoulda known better.

Ah, how should we have known better? Nearly every filehost is used for some illegal material, whether people are aware of it or not. And I've frequently found it necessary to share various files I'm working on with others, for which file hosting sites are very beneficial.
Is there a better, ubiquitous alternative that I'm missing?

Er. That sounded like a sarcastic counter point to me, actually. He's saying that the government shutting the entire site down was reprehensible, because there were a bunch of people who used that site for legitimate reasons, rather than piracy.

Joined: Mar 18 2010 Location: Tuonela Posts: 299

Hacker wrote:

Something I'm wondering.

If the megaupload has been shut down, have the servers been seized?
If so, then I wonder if they'll search them trying to find logs of what IP's uploaded what and what IP's downloaded what. (assuming such logs were kept)

If those two things are both true, I have to wonder to what extent they'll try and prosecute people.

Just something I'm thinking.

When a similar file hosting service (although it was a torrent-site) was taken down in Finland a few years ago, they prosecuted the ones who had shared most extensively and hosted the service. They had to pay about 700 000 each. Some of them were just kids. The plaintiffs included at least Microsoft and Warner Music, if I recall correctly.

Although I agree that law must be obeyed and file sharing is wrong, there is another question. Is ruining some kids life over corporate profit morally justifiable, as individual takedowns such as this won't do anything for the problem of piracy in general?

Posted: Jan 20 2012 09:56 am

People generally don't get punished for downloading, they get punished for distributing.

If you want to be an Internet hero and upload torrents and seed the hell out of them, good for you. Good for you for being Internet famous. But when you get prosecuted for millions of dollars, don't come crying to me. You got what you deserved. Don't join any torrent site that has a mandatory U/D ratio, as they are forcing you to actively participate in distributing of pirated material, and that could have legal consequences for you.

Posted: Jan 20 2012 10:50 am

If anything, this move just proves that the government doesn't need SOPA to take down sites. However, even if they did pass SOPA with the way it is now, it would be reminiscent of the days of Prohibition when alcohol was outlawed. People still distributed booze through speakeasies and authorities found it was difficult to enforce.

As with alcohol, there's really not much point in banning/criminalizing piracy, it would just drive it further underground. People could still use anonymous P2P; it'd be harder but still possible. People will still find ways to do it.

Posted: Jan 20 2012 11:18 am

The government was able to shut down Megaupload because they had servers here in the US. That's not the case for a lot of sites. So yeah, to go after some of these guys, the government would need something like SOPA.

Not that it matters. If the protests did anything, it did let Congress know that they're not going to get away with passing anything that allows sites to get shut off.

Quote:

As with alcohol, there's really not much point in banning/criminalizing piracy, it would just drive it further underground. People could still use anonymous P2P; it'd be harder but still possible. People will still find ways to do it.

That argument only goes so far. Heroine was driven further underground, and people still found a way to do it, but that doesn't mean that the government should just shake its head and go, "Yeah. We couldn't kill it so we should just let people use as much heroine as they like." You shouldn't just allow something to go on wholesale because it's hard to stop completely.

Joined: Aug 04 2009 Posts: 2515

Beach Bum wrote:

Alowishus wrote:

Oh Boy. This is the shit that pisses me off about the US.

"Megaupload is an online Hong Kong–based company"

Hong Kong based. Not in the US. They close it down anyway. US thinks they can do whatever they want whenever they want, just bullies everyone as usual.

It really is to the extent that i have to give a fuck about the US bills despite the fact that i don't live in the US and i have absolutely no input on it. The US is going to fuck up the internet i can see it right now.

So much rage. If you read the article, there were servers for it run in the US, giving them every right to shut it down and pursue charges, because it was being operated in the US thereby breaking US laws.

Yes, not all servers were in the US....I don't have to read the article to know how Megaupload operated.

This is my entire point perhaps i should illustrate it better.

The US are trying to police the internet. That is fair enough....for people in the US.

HOWEVER the US government i guess must fail to realise that everyone on this fucking planet who uses the internet has access to American sites. It would be pretty pointless for American sites to operate if their viewers in the US couldn't view it but my point is that it's a local issue for the United States but it's effecting everyone else.

See if this SOPA crap was on a worldwide scale i wouldn't have a problem with legislation regarding it because at least I WOULD BE ABLE to go and complain about it.

But no i have no influence on this, i can't roll up on the fucking steps of Capital Hill and start protesting. They don't give two fucks about what the rest of the world thinks yet they are controlling the interests of the rest of the world and we have no fucking say in it.

We just have to sit here and let the US government steam roll over fucking everything.

Posted: Jan 20 2012 01:02 pm

So let me get this strait: you're arguing that since American sites are viewed by people worldwide, the government is infringing on international rights?

Posted: Jan 20 2012 01:04 pm

I think what he's saying is that because the entire site that was shut down is not just American, that the site shouldn't have been shut down and that if anything, the servers in America should've been taken offline, in which case I agree.

Joined: Aug 04 2009 Posts: 2515

What Justdrop said but i am talking about SOPA as well so yes what you are both saying is my point.