I'm sure you guys have heard of this, but earlier today the FBI took down Megaupload and all of its websites after a two year investigation. Megaupload is facing legal charges, and several of their employees have been arrested. Many, many people disliked this (including me, I was the proud owner of a Lifetime Platinum account...).

Many people also thought it was odd that it happened the very day after internet wide protest against SOPA/PIPA, by Wikipedia, Google and other major websites.

The story just took another funny and yet dramatic turn, since Anonymous just took down the DOJ's website, aswell as Universal Music and other websites I can't remember. They say they're also working on taking down the FBI website aswell as the White House's.

I thought it was funny, but I'm still pissed at the recent events regarding piracy and what not, and how the US government is going mad with that subject and going relentlessly after it.

edit : I put this in Politics because it sort of falls under the whole SOPA/PIPA category, eventho the FBI has stated it's not related. It still concerns legal issues tho.

Good, stealing is bad.

Lol at taking 2 years to investigate.

There is an OOT thread on this and there has been discussion in the SOPA thread but its probably right to give this its own thread given this has nothing to do with SOPA.

Anon crying about not being able to pirate Archer on MU tonight isnt exactly making me like them.

Obtaining IP without paying for it may be bad, but not because stealing is.

I've used megaupload a lot. Never have I used it for sharing of copyrighted material. Taking down a site like that because there are people who use it for distributing copyrighted material is not a good thing at all. What about everyone else?

@ Vael edit

The day the government goes after the porn sites is the day they'll realize they've gone too far and wish they could put the genie back in the bottle.

Porn is probably the only thing keeping the youth of this country still happily sequestered in their basements instead of rioting in the streets.

wait ... larry david took down the DoJ's web site? how?

poasting in an epic thread

some ****** in the magic: the gathering community has been blogging about this stuff at themtgodojo.com

mjacksonpopcorn.jpeg

IMO sharing files is part of the social contract that we all implicitly accept by being alive. The world is very grey and difficult to understand, don't be so dogmatic.

The Wikipedia blackout is over. At last we can now find out what SOPA is.

Full list that are shut down or were shut down:

justice.gov
doj.gov
universalmusic.com
riaa.org
mpaa.org
wmg.com
bmi.com
copyright.gov
hadopi.fr

White House is in progress, although the numbers have dropped, so they might come up short.

Let me know when Anonymous does something useful besides be script kiddies. It's a shame they don't do even half of what they claim to be able to do.

Looking at the details, it looks like MegaUpload might have been a bit more malicious in this than they thought. Still does not justify the penalties for it, though.

Yeah, and there are even people who post copyrighted materials on their facebook.

SEIZE FACEBOOK.COM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!

hahahah that's brian, he used to be a Big Deal around here before he got banned for being too drunk

Well, Brian was a medium deal I guess.

Evenin', ma'am. :-)

but taxation isn't stealing.

****ing ridiculous.

I'm hoping to record my next gig and release it free as a live album. I would use a site like megaupload or rapidshare.

Drop an don't copy yo, don't call this a co-op
That five sided fist-a-gon
Tha rotten sore on tha face of mother earth gets bigger
Tha triggers cold empty ya purse

I'm inclined to stoop down,
Hand out some beatdowns.


Tbh, I'd never heard of this website before today. No idea whether it's because the site isn't that popular or if it's just standard losing-touch with-things-as-I-get-older.

it's a pretty popular web site, dude

http://www.alexa.com/search?q=megaup..._home&p=bigtop

Don't fall for his bait!

I'm happy to see that nobody has gone into the stupid "piracy isn't stealing" argument.

You can't force me to accept a contract just because I'm alive!

But seriously, can you elaborate on what this contract is?

No, go live in the woods or something if you don't like it.

Piracy is bad but laws have to be enforceable. Trying to stop people from sharing illegally is the modern day equivalent of trying to stop people from recording radio onto cassette.