Umm, I think the following post is incorrect -
check the update
If you haven't heard, the day after the SOPA/PIPA internet protest, and the governmental retreat, the Justice Department showing their stunningly bad decision making (and timing), shut down Megaupload.com.
Anonymous responded, shutting down the RIAA and the Justice department ( this BTW is not really part of the story ) I do not condone this reprehensible behavior ( believe me ).
On the other hand, I can vouch for the fact that Megaupload is used for legitimate uses - it's where I get my home router firmware.
We shouldn't worry, in spite of our crack justice department work, megaupload was down for less than 24 hours.
Our taxpayer dollars at work. Sheesh
Perry
Update
One of the people arrested is
Kim Schmitz. Not exactly a poster child for protected speech. Actually a global celebrity in Internet Abuse and Fraud.
Hey - If you've real lost work because you stored it on MegaUpload, did you do a little bit of research?
Update 2 It's probably worse than that
I haven't read the indictment, but Wikipedia has, and says:
"In Megaupload's case, the indictment asserts DMCA provisions were used for the appearance of legitimacy - the actual material was not removed, only some links to it were, takedowns agreement was approved based on business growth rather than infringement, and the parties themselves openly discussed their infringing activities. The indictment states that Megaupload executives "... are willfully infringing copyrights themselves on these systems; have actual knowledge that the materials on their systems are infringing (or alternatively know facts or circumstances that would make infringing material apparent); receive a financial benefit directly attributable to copyright-infringing activity where the provider can control that activity; and have not removed, or disabled access to, known copyright infringing material from servers they control."[46]"
Which, from what I know of Schmitz, is just him acting as himself. So he's making a business stealing intellectual property. This is illegal in a large number of civilized countries, which I define as places where I'd like to live. He was living in a mansion in New Zealand, and (allegedly) living off wholesale IP theft. Too bad for him.
OTOH if he was living in some sort of country where this wasn't illegal, well, our legal process just couldn't touch him, so that would be too bad for us. Oh well, let's see how it plays out in the courts.
Of course, that doesn't matter for Anonymous or Luzsec - they're just in it for the chaos or the Lulz
Perry
