Where to begin with this whole story? It's all out of a terrible sequel to the Facebook Movie. I don't see how this guy and the people he affiliated himself with are going to be able to fight the charges. They seemingly OPENLY supported piracy/copyright infringement. The money laundering stuff, too? Forget about it. They even got the cops in his own country (New Zealand) to cooperate. They were out to make an example.
I love how this guy also proves the maxim: Chicks will tolerate almost any gnarly-looking guy if he's loaded. DOTCOM was an absolute troll, but was always around tons of chicks. I'm sure some of them had to bang him, right? Haha
I think there comes a point when you come to the realization that anything that can be digitally produced can be digitally reproduced and therefore shared. This wouldn't be a problem IF the kinds of entertainment people wanted to consume were in a format that cannot be replicated digitally (think anything outdoors, anything intoxicating, or your good ol' fashion star trek holo deck).
Up until recently ( the last 50 years ) all these forms of art were also unshareable, and therefore priced FAR above things that were not. Thoughts, slogans, and ideas might be patented, trademarked, or copyrighted, but you could share them freely without getting charged. Even as intellectual property, you are free to share them, just not make money off them.
We are at the intersection of the old model and the new 'obvious' model. Many artists willingly distribute their stuff freely, and and sell things like performances instead (Gaga on YT for example). Others acknowledge the inevitability of people sharing this stuff and just ask that people honor the old model if possible (Notch and Minecraft for example).
To me, the most interesting discussion isn't just about the legality and reasoning behind the sharing, but the concept of mass distribution. When I was in grade school, I remember reading snippets from techies predicting that storage would grow so much every single person could have an entire cope of everything in the library of congress on their keychain. Yeah right, what about copryight?
Mega Upload made so much money by filling a tremendous gap in terms of facilitating mass distribution while letting stuff slide. You can share files with google docs... Mass distribute if you will but I imagine that google would break any infringing links upon request and gladly hand you over to authorities. The reason that megaupload made so much money was because it was illegal. If you take away the illegality and megauploads willingness to look the other way, lots of sites could have competed in just raw storage and distribution. Still... this just means something else will move into take the place, because the demand is there.
Registered: 2004-10-08 Location: O'Fallon Missouri USA Posts: 709
I don't know if it is just wealth Nebu. I know of a lot of broke bums (mostly friend's relatives) that you just scratch your head as to why they get women. They have no money, are ugly, and can't hold a steady job. Yet women flock to them in hordes.
I always assume drugs. But then if they were drug dealers they would have money. I don't get it.
Registered: 2003-03-27 Location: San Antonio, TX. Posts: 469
That model he proposes is brilliant. Want to talk conspiracies? Any chance RIAA/MPAA put pressure on the DoJ to shut them down because his idea would have revolutionized MP3's? MegaUpload might have been a threat?
Wonder if we will ever get that now that the whole staff is being prosecuted.
So that`s what this is all about. I hated that site anyway and every dick that used it to make me dl a file there (not even anything illegal either haha).
I sadly have to admit i didn't follow Mega Upload too closely and am not wholly in a position to postulate here.
Overall, I have to agree with m0rb0 that this whole thing has the ring of money being used to "entice" actions the RIAA / MPAA may have wanted.
The incidents here just seemed to have moved to fast and had too much negative spin to believe that many persons involved in bringing down Mega Upload weren't heavily on the take.
The scary take away from this is the mafia style justice being employed here.
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