FBI Closes Megaupload and arrests several of their employees

Technology and Gaming
#261

So Schmitz killed someone? I’m not trying to be an ass (much), I know what you mean by extradition, no arguing there.

The problem many are having with this case is, that it is of precedence value. Governments use extradition against notorious criminals, murderers, fugitives, terrorists or fuck wealthy businessmen with less than legal income. Now the latter one may look like it applies to piracy, except the whole damage done by piracy isn’t ever gonna be a clear cut. When you pirate something, you’re not taking away money, you’re simply not giving away yours - assuming you have had any to begin with. It is a theft against assumed wealth, wealth that major companies arrogantly claim to be their own, it’s not like robbing a bank…

Companies claim that piracy is flat out damage to them, but they’re biased, users claim the opposite or something between the two but they are biased too. However, it’s in no ones interest to make a clear and official study because that can turn out only one way. By confirming that piracy isn’t as big a damage as thought, so people would be less concerned about the morality of piracy which results in an increased download rate which in turn changes the figures (rightly so) proving the major companies claims - although it would be too late at that point.

That last paragraph wasn’t really a direct reply to your post (I’m sure you figured), more just generally expressing my opinion on the matter.

#262

We understand you don’t want to admit the fact that you’ve lost this argument.

#263

@vivanto: Yeah, I understand completely, and everything you’ve stated is good and solid. The ferocity of my reply to Phat was mostly due to my being annoyed at people who see this incident and take away from it “AMERICA FUCK YEAH COMIN’ AGAIN TO SAVE THE MOTHERFUCKIN’ DAY YEAH.” I just want people to know that this isn’t a case of the US randomly arresting non-citizens for perceived crimes: it is extradition, which is a perfectly legal and agreed-upon system used by governments all over the world.

#264

While I have no problem with extradition if it’s something effecting the USA, Kim still shouldn’t get a big sentence, maybe a year or two at most if he’s convicted. Since media corporation’s claims of piracy hurting them tend to be mostly invalid (Valve and a couple of others have stated that piracy doesn’t affect them much), I think the government should look into just how much “hurting” these corporations suffer through.

#265

It’s a pathetic waste of resources, plus the FBI doesn’t know what they are getting into, especially with all those dedicated Megaupload users like me, who use Megaupload to share the things that they create.

#266

But I get the feeling my government wants to make an example of him and send a message. He might get 50 years just because I think that theres going to be a big crackdown this year on stuff like this. Of course I might be wrong so meh.

#267

I think you’ve got a point there, Evod. Christ, the world is turning into a shittier place everyday.
I really hope Sopa is vetoed and all of this blows over and everything returns to normal. This bill presents a threat to freedom of speech, information, and a lot of other things, and the fact that they’re justifying it by saying “Oh, it’s for piracy!” is just sickening. Piracy will always occur if there’s an internet, so no internet = no piracy, and is that the measure the government wants to take over something that’s a lot less bad then it’s been made to believe?

#268

SOPA has been dead for a week or two now, and I think PIPA has pretty much bit the dust, too. The internet blackout and international outrage sent a pretty huge message to the US Congress. Now it’s ACTA that we have to be concerned about.

#269

I see. Well, let’s hope for ACTA to die out too, Kim to get released free of charge, get MegaUpload back up, and everything back to normal.
If only the government saw that piracy is copying, not stealing, and maybe start to question the media corporations who say they’ve lost a huge profit because of piracy, since I bet they haven’t lost anything of significant worth (remember how much they actually make).

#270

Here’s a film that claims that piracy isn’t as bad as it’s made to seem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gguwuIiDYk
It’s kind of long and boring, but it’s a good argument though.

#271

ACTA has already been signed by 22 countries.

The ratification procedure will end with a final vote in the EU Parliament in June.

#272

The only way to stop piracy on the internet would be to shut down the internet entirely and even then, that wouldn’t stop physical piracy. You can’t stop that which will never stop.

Companies waste too much money on useless anti-piracy techniques that could be used instead to improve the products they sell.

Also generally lowering prices across the board would help in the long run. Valve reports a huge increase in sales every time they do their crazy discount seasons, resulting in a bigger profit for the companies than when the games are selling at normal price.

Unfortunately, most gaming companies are managed by money-centric ignorant douchebags without a drop of common sense in their heads, so they always go for the obvious and expensive brute-force route instead of thinking outside the box or simply tackling the problem by treating their costumers with respect and simply focus on selling great products at reasonable prices.

#273

That’s not true. The Internet is a worldwide invention. Why does everyone always seem to think that the USA invented everything ? Europe and Asia create things too you know…

Believe it or not, this communication technology (electronic signals through phone circuits) was created in the USSR for space missions (and then copied in the USA for space missions too and only for that. Copying is the only thing the USA’s government is good at. Isn’t it ironic that they chase after “pirate”-copists, when you know everything the USA copied in history?).

Those who then first developed it as “Inter-networks” to share data and knowledge were the UK.
Only years later was it developed in the USA (only for the army though), and even more in Swiss and other countries (such as the Netherlands for browsers and Norvegia for CSS).
Still, the most important developers of the Internet were in the UK (arpa and universities networks) and in Swiss (first worldwide server, http, www, html, …).

That means that the fathers of the Internet are the USSR (for the technology), the UK (using this technology to share data), Swiss (developing it and making it worldwide, convenient, and public), and a few other countries. What I’m trying to say is that no country can be considered the only father of the Internet. A lot of countries were involved in its creation, and the USA certainly were the less important of them…

#274

snip

#275

The sad thing is he’s serious.

#276

Why does everyone who isn’t everyone seem to think that everyone always seems to think that the USA invented everything ?

#277

I know Mercedize-Benz invented the automobile. It was on some commercial I saw.

#278

Abraham Lincoln invented America.

#279

Mayans invented internet

#280

America invented the world

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