Will Megauploads demise effect tv piracy?

Richard Dower

um...no!, history dictates you take one down...5 more pop up. It has sent a strong signal though that owners of these filesharing sites must at least give the ILLUSION they are actively trying to take down these files.

In Megas case the FBI were able to prove the Mega didn't give a crap and ignored DMCA takedown notices, it has had a temporary effect...people are being more cautious and a bit fearful, especially if you owned a premium account....the FBI has everyones details and download history :eek:

http://music-mix.ew.com/2012/01/20/swizz-beatz-megaupload-indictment/

http://popwatch.ew.com/2012/01/20/sopa-pipa-congress/

Reposting link by Boards.ie subscriber detailing the evidence against Megaupload: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/why-the-feds-smashed-megaupload.ars

JONJO THE MISER

Richard Dower wrote: »

the FBI has everyones details and download history

:eek:...... Disconnects internet.

Eathrin

Richard Dower wrote: »

um...no!, history dictates you take one down...5 more pop up. It has sent a strong signal though that owners of these filesharing sites must at least give the ILLUSIOn they are actively trying to take down these files.

In Megas case the FBI were able to prove the Mega didn't give a crap and ignored DMCA takedown notices, it has had a temporary effect...people are being more cautious and a bit fearful, especially if you owned a premium account....the FBI has everyones details and download history :eek:

Would the principle that "buyers are entitled to legal ownership of goods purchased and quiet possession" take any effect here?

DeWitt

No. I hadn't used their service in years anyway. There's better means out there.

Basq

I'm warning people in advance...

.. a thread has already been closed in Computers / Technology with various methods, allusions to and means of pirating discussed.

Let's keep it on discussion of the topic at hand only!

---

Will it make a difference to TV piracy now that Megaupload has been closed?

Not in the slightest...

.. we've seen bigger and more important sites fall only to have a replacement within weeks.

I think the FBI need to concentrate on more important things than taking down a "smallish" fish in a big pond.

The various content providers need to concentrate on rolling out a more affordable video-on-demand service... embrace the downloaders rather than be scared of them / prosecute them.

amacachi

It'll make no difference whatsoever. To me the funniest thing about it is that yes, there were files hosted there but the site wasn't searchable. The places people found links probably haven't changed, the links will just be different.

Hope that wasn't alluding too much to anything, as far as I can tell the TV forum generally isn't as ridiculous and C&T for their not wanting anything mentioned about anything.


Overall though I've no sympathy whatsoever for Megaupload, piracy is one thing, people making a huge profit out of it is another. Since I first got broadband and started watching anime where people had gone to the effort of acquiring the episodes, someone would translate, someone would make the subs, encode the subs, re-encode the video etc. and it would be available for free by 3 or 4 different means. That was always the spirit behind such things and it should have remained so. Still, a fool and his money is easily parted.

MyPeopleDrankTheSoup

Not a hope will it make a difference, no matter how many filelocker sites are taken down. All it takes is one guy or group of good network admins to take a risk for the cash. You don't even need great programmers, there's scripts around the net. You just need guys who can handle configing multiple servers for huge amounts of traffic.

downwithpeace

No it won't effect TV piracy or any other form of it, it will however open the eyes of other filehosts given the size of Megaupload and probably force all the filehosts that pay for downloads to rethink their way in keeping users while not making themselves a target.

Rapidshare have already said they're not worried, Fileserve should be since I believe they have connection in side the US.

Richard Dower

downwithpeace wrote: »

No it won't effect TV piracy or any other form of it, it will however open the eyes of other filehosts given the size of Megaupload and probably force all the filehosts that pay for downloads to rethink their way in keeping users while not making themselves a target.

Rapidshare have already said they're not worried, Fileserve should be since I believe they have connection in side the US.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/rapidshare-not-concerned-about-megaupload-takedown.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss

downwithpeace

Saw that not to long ago, where I got the Rapidshare not so worried bit.

Richard Dower

Tis interesting, no one has hit the i'm a good citizen option.....ooh dear!

briany

JONJO THE MISER wrote: »

:eek:...... Disconnects internet.

The people taking down cyber locker sites can Furk off because it's futile, it's wasting government resources that could be dealing with violent crime or corruption and frankly, the people aren't impressed by these domain seizures anymore. I never much downloaded from Mega but I streamed quite a bit from the site. If they go after the streamers too, we're gonna have to send to jail just about everyone who's watched a music video or 3 part tv show upload on YT as well. It's a big name down but that has happened before. How long before a site, possibly a clone, takes it's place?

Richard Dower wrote: »

Tis interesting, no one has hit the i'm a good citizen option.....ooh dear!

Whatever you think about it, less and less people look at using services like Megaupload as breaking the law and the attempts to persuade them to the contrary haven't seem to have worked. It's not the first time that the entertainment industry has tried to stop people from unauthorized sharing of intellectual property but this time it's a much bigger thing with huge social, political and economic ramifications like the war on drugs or the war on terror but a lot of the people who get caught up in the war on piracy are just ordinary people, otherwise law abiding who've downloaded a collection of songs or movies. What is to be gained from trying to get them to pay money they may not have or lock them up?

Niles

I don't think it will have any effect. Personally I "ain't bovvered" as I generally wait to see stuff on the TV anyway (well, expect stuff not picked up by available channels).

The only possible way I can see piracy being somewhat lessened would be if Irish and UK channels get programs very soon after the US (has been done in some cases but by no means all), and have it available on player for a while afterwards. Even then I can't see it wiping piracy out, but it might lessen it.

But the loss of megaupload alone won't have much of an effect in itself, people will just move to another source.

constitutionus

yeah i have to agree with that.

i dont look at movies for instance because i like the cinema experience.

if local telly was showing shows the same time as the states i'd be watching that too but thats not the case thanks to bureaucracy/marketing.

this has made little difference to me.

the sites i use give various links to what im looking for so mega going just means im linking to someone else.

so if im the norm, or even the just under average, then it wont matter a witt.

by the way.

someone put down theyre a good citizen now. fair play to ya.

Xaniaj

I can't see it having any affect - closing one site when it can quickly replaced by another seems like scare mongering more than anything.

Like many, I get a fair few shows from the American cousins but I also have a large selection of DVDs, go regularly to the cinema and recently got netflix. I will happily pay for the service if its available - if a service like netflix had the recent shows (ie no more than a month or two of a delay), I'd pay for that (and more than the current netflix sub!) and I don't think I'm alone it this. Networks etc need to think of the net as a hell of an opportunity....

mikemac1

Never even heard of that site

The site I use has most every TV show I want
Or the cousins in America have the show ready the same night, I've been up at six am watching shows the odd time before work

So I voted no difference

Edit, if the TV executives actually released the boxsets I'd buy even more of them
24 finishing around April and you had to wait until November for the boxset???
Game of Thrones the same, waiting months and months for the boxset. I want to buy it while the show is fresh in my mind. Six months later I don't care anymore

Their own fault

Biggins

Will Megauploads demise effect tv piracy?

Will it hell!

This current effort is like pea-shooting at a huge elephant.
A total waste of time.

Wetai

Basq wrote: »

The various content providers need to concentrate on rolling out a more affordable video-on-demand service... embrace the downloaders rather than be scared of them / prosecute them.

One thing that annoys me: When i want to look something like a promo for a TV show/comic con panel on NBC they only have it available to people in the US. It's being shown ONLINE, on THEIR site, it's not like they're broadcasting it ONLY on their TV network, which would be an understandable restriction..

They supposedly have stopped showing the latest season of Chuck on their site, while they've (I think) shown S1-4 on there after they've been aired. Then they'll wonder why people are downloading the episodes..

Dilynnio

Hmmm...im not so sure!

I usually use one website that brings up links for shows and today I sat down thinking megavideo peh I can watch many other sites but 5 hours later I am still looking for working links......many uploaders have shat themselves and have pulled down all their links!

TV online my be on its way out unless some one can convince me otherwise.

I am doing my nut here trying to watch VD......im bursting to know whats happened on it!

I am not a fan of downloading i much prefer streaming.

Basq

mikemac1 wrote: »

24 finishing around April and you had to wait until November for the boxset???
Game of Thrones the same, waiting months and months for the boxset. I want to buy it while the show is fresh in my mind. Six months later I don't care anymore

Their own fault

A lot of networks do this to create publicity / advertise a new season..

.. hence the reasoning for releasing GoT just before season 2 begins. AMC do the same with their shows - Mad Men, Breaking Bad etc.

People still will buy it in their droves.. but yeah, I always thought it was silly.

amacachi

Dilynnio wrote: »

Hmmm...im not so sure!

I usually use one website that brings up links for shows and today I sat down thinking megavideo peh I can watch many other sites but 5 hours later I am still looking for working links......many uploaders have shat themselves and have pulled down all their links!

TV online my be on its way out unless some one can convince me otherwise.

I am doing my nut here trying to watch VD......im bursting to know whats happened on it!

I am not a fan of downloading i much prefer streaming.

That's your decision but they use the same bandwidth and it's handy to be able to watch at leisure later on.

I never saw streaming as being a viable way to watch things online. It has to be remembered that Bittorrent was created to allow mass transfers of files without so much bandwidth on the tracker end. Even when home broadband speeds allowing streaming reached levels where it would be possible there wasn't enough bandwidth on the server end.
It's only the last 18 months or 2 years that (illegal) streaming seemed to really take off and the fact that files are, and have to be, in a fixed place makes it all very vulnerable.
With available bandwidth now streaming is perfectly possible if the companies want to go ahead and use it. Outside America that is.

When it comes to releasing shows on DVD/Blu-Ray the BBC and ITV do it best. A shows ends on BBC on a Tuesday, the DVD is available in Ireland three days later an in the UK six days after. The last season of Torchwood has been available in the UK for months, US won't get it for another.

VinLieger

Meh wont affect me in the slightest, havent used megaupload or video for a while as the site i use has links to better quality ones that have none of the 72 minute waiting you used to have to deal with

Dilynnio

VinLieger wrote: »

Meh wont affect me in the slightest, havent used megaupload or video for a while as the site i use has links to better quality ones that have none of the 72 minute waiting you used to have to deal with

NICE!

PM me if you would like to share the link!

Mr E

*sigh*

The Flippin' Charter wrote:

Don't ask where you can download/stream TV shows or give any links to them. Infact try to stay away from discussion of downloading altogether.

theg81der

Well its had a mega impact on streaming cause I can`t watch any of my programs!!!!:mad:

Kirby

People will just move to another file hosting service. Pissing into the wind to be honest. Aren't these guys supposed to be smart?

As has been mentioned already, they would be better served going after the websites and forums where these links are being posted. We all know the names of these places and there are a main 3 or 4 that the bulk of the general public visit for their stuff.

If they shut them down, a percentage would move onto the new site. The hardcore downloaders. But I'd wager alot wouldn't bother as most people are casual downloaders who only do it for one or two shows....and finding another site, registering, learning the ropes etc. is too much trouble.

You will never "defeat" piracy. Not like this anyway. But if they insist on using this sledge hammer approach, the least they could do is have a proper go at it.

briany

Kirby wrote: »

You will never "defeat" piracy. Not like this anyway. But if they insist on using this sledge hammer approach, the least they could do is have a proper go at it.

They've been using this approach pretty much since file sharing took off so they seem pretty committed to it at this stage and people don't usually like to admit, publicly anyway, that they were wrong about it something or could have handled it better. I'm not saying that they were wrong to try and protect the intellectual property but they were and are definitely wrong about their prohibition style tactics in doing so as anyone can see that they have been quite counterproductive, causing p2p methods to diversify and become ever more sophisticated, delivering an ever higher quality illegal copy while placing ever more draconian warnings and copy protections on the legal one.

Mindkiller

Anyone checked out filesonic recently?

"All sharing functionality on FileSonic is now disabled. Our service can only be used to upload and retrieve files that you have uploaded personally.

If this file belongs to you, please login to download it directly from your file manager."

sink

Yeah filesonic seems to be shutting it's doors and also upload.to, they appear to be running scared.

Thrill

Uploaded.to, one of the most popular file-hosting sites in the Internet, has closed its doors to US visitors.

http://techie-buzz.com/tech-news/uploaded-to-not-working.html


It's having an effect alright.

Thrill

Interesting piece on why they went after megaupload so aggressively. It's long but well worth a read.


MegaUpload: What Made It a Rogue Site Worthy of Destruction?

File-hosting services all around the world will have looked on in horror yesterday as MegaUpload, one of the world’s largest cyberlocker services, was taken apart by the FBI. Foreign citizens were arrested in foreign lands and at least $50 million in assets seized. So what exactly prompted this action? TorrentFreak read every word of the 72-page indictment so you don’t have to, and we were surprised by its contents.


Yesterday a massive operation took down MegaUpload, one of the world’s leading file-storage services and one of the world’s biggest sites, period.

While the timing came as a huge post-SOPA protest surprise, the fact the site was targeted was not – for many months there have been rumblings behind the scenes that something might be “done” about MegaUpload. Nevertheless, the manner in which the action was taken and the language used by the authorities in doing so was utterly unprecedented.

So the key question this morning is this – What made MegaUpload a rogue site which deserved to be completely dismantled and its key staff arrested? The answers lie in the 72-page indictment and show just how the authorities (with the massive assistance of the MPAA, no doubt) framed Mega’s activities in such a way as to strip it of any protection under the DMCA.

In the U.S., online service providers are eligible for safe harbor under the DMCA from copyright infringement suits by meeting certain criteria. However, the indictment states that member of the “Mega Conspiracy” (capital M, capital C no less) do not meet these criteria because…

…they 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.

Let’s cover the last point first – the apparent non-removal of known copyright material from MegaUpload’s servers. First, a little background on how MegaUpload’s user uploading system worked because this is absolutely crucial to the case against the site.


Mega had developed a system whereby files set to be uploaded by users were hashed in order to discover if a copy of the file already exists on the Mega servers. If a file existed, the user did not have to upload his copy and was simply given a unique URL in order to access the content in future. What this meant in practice is that there could be countless URLs ‘owned’ by various users but which all pointed to the same file.

Megaupload’s “Abuse Tool” to which major copyright holders were given access, enabled the removal of links to infringing works hosted on MegaUpload’s servers. However, the indictment claims that it “did not actually function as a DMCA compliance tool as the copyright owners were led to believe.” And here’s why.

The indictment claims that when a copyright holder issued a takedown notice for content referenced by its URL, only the URL was taken down, not the content to which it pointed. So although the URL in question would report that it had been removed and would no longer resolve to infringing material, URLs issued to others would remain operational.

Furthermore, the indictment states that although MegaUpload staff (referred to as Members of the Conspiracy) discussed how they could automatically remove child pornography from their systems given a specific hash value, the same standards weren’t applied to complained-about copyright works.

In June 2010, it appears that MegaUpload was subjected to a something of a test by the authorities. The company was informed, pursuant to a criminal search warrant from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, that thirty-nine infringing movies were being stored on their servers at Carpathia Hosting in the Eastern District of Virginia.

“A member of the Mega Conspiracy informed several of his co-conspirators at that time that he located the named files using internal searches of their systems. As of November 18, 2011, more than a year later, thirty-six of the thirty-nine infringing motion pictures were still being stored on the servers controlled by the Mega Conspiracy,” the indictment reads.

The paperworks goes on to accuse MegaUpload of running a program between September 2005 and July 2011 which rewarded users for uploading infringing material

A citation from an internal MegaUpload email from February 2007 entitled “reward payments” claims to show that at least two key staff members knew that cash payments were being paid to users who uploaded infringing material including “full popular DVD rips” and “software with keygenerators (Warez)”.

Then the indictment starts to throw up some very interesting questions, specifically how the authorities managed to get hold of not just one but many of MegaUpload’s internal company emails (dating back to 2006) to use in the case against them.

It’s certainly possible that the authorities were monitoring MegaUpload’s correspondence but there are also at least two mentions in the indictment of an unnamed person described as “an unindicted co-conspirator”. While prosecutors sometimes use this term to describe people who have been excluded from an indictment on evidentiary concerns, they also use it to describe individuals who have been granted immunity from prosecution.

In any event, these emails are being heavily relied upon since many appear to indicate a knowledge among staff that copyright works were held on the company’s servers. Here’s a sample:

An email from 2006 claims to show how MegaUpload attempted to download large amounts of content from YouTube and appeared by April that year to have obtained 30% of the site’s content. A follow up email in 2007 claimed that “Kim [MegaUpload's founder] really wants to copy Youtube one to one.”

An email from August 2006 titled “lol” contained a screenshot of a MegaUpload download page showing a cracked copy of CD burning software Alcohol 120%.

Other correspondence quoted in the indictment appears to show key staff members sending each other links to copyright works hosted on MegaUpload.

One contained 100 MegaUpload links to content by recording artist Armin Van Buuren. Another, allegedly sent in December 2006 by Kim Dotcom to another staff member, carried a link to a music file hosted on a MegaUpload server entitled “05-50_cent_feat._mobb_deep-nah-c4.mp3”. No context for the sending of these links is given in the indictment.

Other emails show staff asking each other to help locate copies of infringing content including TV series The Sopranos and Seinfeld, and music from a band called Grand Archives. Again, no context is offered in the indictment.

An email sent in July 2008 shows a key staff member reporting an earlier conversation with another entitled “funny chat-log.”

“We have a funny business . . . modern days pirates,” the exchange begins.
“We’re not pirates,” came the reply. “We’re just providing shipping services to pirates.”

But aside from exchanging links to copyright works, the indictment claims that key staff members also uploaded material themselves including a TV show from the BBC and a copy of the movie Taken.

The indictment lists several other examples which are supposed to demonstrate that the admins of MegaUpload knew that their service was being used for the storage and distribution of illegal material.

Emails from customers are cited where they complain that for various reasons they’re unable to watch named copyrighted works. Others ask how to find pirate movies on Mega and are told to go to sites that index Mega-hosted material, such as the ThePirateCity.org, a site seized as part of Operation in Our Sites.

On at least two occasions the indictment reports key MegaUpload staff discussing TorrentFreak articles on seizure operations being carried out by the US authorities.

In one email, Kim Dotcom reportedly stated: “This is a serious threat to our business. Please look into this and see how we can protect ourselfs [sic],” adding, “Should we move our domain to another country, Canada or even HK?”

The indictment separately lists several movies being distributed from MegaUpload’s servers in the United States, all of which were not yet commercially available. There is no indication, however, that MegaUpload’s operators knew they were there.

On face value it would seem that in a handful of cited instances staff at the company did indeed link each other to copyright works, but when the massive scale of the MegaUpload operation is set beside them, their significance is put into a different perspective.

The issue of not taking down content is a fascinating one. MegaUpload is not on its own when it hashes content then allows users to access already-stored versions of the same files. Nevertheless, will taking down a specific URL and not the content itself be enough to appease the courts?

Finally, and despite the assertions of the MPAA, RIAA and the authorities, MegaUpload carried a huge amount of non-infringing content, giving the service itself “substantial non-infringing users”. Nevertheless, all content has now been seized, leaving millions of people and companies without their personal data.

Cyberlocker services and potential startups all around the world will be watching this case like hawks. Seismic doesn’t really come close.

ejmaztec

The Irish Times must be on the drink.


http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0123/breaking7.html

The founder of file-sharing website Megaupload was ordered to be held in custody by a New Zealand court today, as he denied charges of internet piracy and money laundering and said authorities were trying to portray the blackest picture of him.
Prosecutor Anne Toohey argued at a bail hearing that Kim Dotcom, a German national who legally changed his name from Kim Dotcom, was a flight risk "at the extreme end of the scale" because it was believed he had access to funds, had multiple identities and had a history of fleeing criminal charges.

Auvers

"was a flight risk "at the extreme end of the scale" because it was believed he had access to funds, had multiple identities and had a history of fleeing criminal charges."

I suppose he has mates in the Taliban and a holiday home in North Korea

amacachi

Auvers wrote: »

"was a flight risk "at the extreme end of the scale" because it was believed he had access to funds, had multiple identities and had a history of fleeing criminal charges."

I suppose he has mates in the Taliban and a holiday home in North Korea

Ah come on, he made millions from the site, has a few passports and a few citizenships, he'd be gone before any dust could land on him.

sink

Fileserve has gone the same way as filesonic. Rapidshare still seems to be alive but for how long?

subway

It's gas, seemingly the only places on boards you can't discuss tv file sharing are the computers and tv forums!

On topic, there's always an alternative, mega video was very easy which got it lots of users.
Security by obscurity works for most services, some sort of distributed streaming could disrupt all these efforts anyway, in the same way that torrents disrupted regular sharing

Basq

subway wrote: »

It's gas, seemingly the only places on boards you can't discuss tv file sharing are the computers and tv forums!

Why is that "gas"?

We're not naive.. we know people are doing it. It's a legal grey area that we (and Boards.ie) obviously want to avoid.

Try and post a link to copyrighted content in ANY forum, and it won't last long.

The reason we specific you can't discuss it is because it's the most likely forum to be affected.

amacachi

Not looking to start a whole "thing" Basq but I'd love to know the administrators' reasons for allowing links to stream sports events. I know it's not your decision or whatever but the difference between forums is ridiculous.

The TV forum has it more or less right in my opinion, general terms are alright, it's just people being stupid and looking for or posting links that get in trouble.

subway

Basq wrote: »

Why is that "gas"?

We're not naive.. we know people are doing it. It's a legal grey area that we (and Boards.ie) obviously want to avoid.

Try and post a link to copyrighted content in ANY forum, and it won't last long.
.

because, you can do it in [almost] every other forum on boards...
seems to completely depend on who the mods are for the section rather than being some site wide ruling

Auvers

amacachi wrote: »

Ah come on, he made millions from the site, has a few passports and a few citizenships, he'd be gone before any dust could land on him.

I was being sarcastic

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/03/hollywood-funde/

http://news.cnet.com/Terrorist-link-to-copyright-piracy-alleged/2100-1028_3-5722835.html

amacachi

Auvers wrote: »

I was being sarcastic

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/03/hollywood-funde/

http://news.cnet.com/Terrorist-link-to-copyright-piracy-alleged/2100-1028_3-5722835.html

TBH it wouldn't surprise me in the least. I know they love trumping things up but if you lived around the border you'd know there isn't too much illegal activity that happens in isolation.

Basq

amacachi wrote: »

Not looking to start a whole "thing" Basq but I'd love to know the administrators' reasons for allowing links to stream sports events. I know it's not your decision or whatever but the difference between forums is ridiculous.

Not aware of these links amacachi..

.. if they're links to copyrighted content, then I'd be curious to see an example.

They shouldn't be permitted on Boards.ie full stop I'd imagine.. PM me a link to an example / thread if possible.

subway wrote: »

because, you can do it in [almost] every other forum on boards...
seems to completely depend on who the mods are for the section rather than being some site wide ruling

It would completely depend as to what degree you're discussing it..

.. casual mentions of the "cousin's" analogy etc are one thing. Linking to content is another thing entirely.

As I said.. we've not naive. We know what's going in.. we just don't want specifics in our forum (and I'd say the majority of other mods on Boards feel the same).

---

Anyways, I'm not getting into this discussion here.. bring it up in Feedback if necessary!

titan18

You have it here on the Rugby forum for example

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055512876&page=108

There's ones in soccer, and you'd see links going up on american football forum occasionally

_AVALANCHE_

Did someone park a tank on Kim DotCom's lawn?

Would you have been fooled? A life-size inflatable balloon designed to look like a Soviet-era tank, was parked on Kim DotCom's lawn this week
(Credit: France Komoroske )
Days after police in New Zealand arrested Kim DotCom, the founder of cyberlocker service MegaUpload and accused pirate, journalists were chasing reports that a tank was parked on the front lawn of his Auckland home.


"National Radio (New Zealand) called me about a half hour ago because someone texted to say that there's an army tank on Kim's lawn that is aimed at the front gate," France Komoroske, an attorney and DotCom neighbor, wrote CNET. "They asked me to go take a look."



Now, before we go on, put yourself in the position of DotCom's neighbors or reporters covering this story. Ask yourself this: Why wouldn't there be a tank?


DotCom is the 6-foot-7, 300-pound former street racer and convicted felon who is relatively new to the area and known for driving around in exotic automobiles. The 38-year-old referred to himself as "God" and "Dr. Evil" and lived in a massive $24 million mansion. Only a week earlier, more than 70 police officers had stormed the home by helicopter to arrest him on charges of operating a massive Internet piracy empire.
Police hauled away millions in cash and had to remove DotCom from a specially designed safe room, where they discovered he owned specially designed semi-automatic shotguns.


After all this, what's too far-fetched? Who would blink if DotCom had built a secret lair beneath a volcano, or employed an exact double, or owned a tank?
That's the kind of thing criminal masterminds do in the movies and for many years that's the image that DotCom went out of his way to construct for himself.


Nonetheless, the tank was a fake--albeit a good one. What people saw on DotCom's lawn was an inflatable, life-size balloon made to look like a Soviet-era T-72 Russian battle tank, reported the New Zealand Herald. A party was held for one of his children and an inflatable castle was also at the home but set up in the back, according to Komoroske.
(Credit: France Komoroske)
The tank balloon looked real enough to fool a host of neighbors and some journalists. Inflatable tank models were used in battle to deceive foes.
What I'd like to know was, while the other inflatable toys were stationed in the back of the home, how come the tank was left in the front? One has to wonder if DotCom, who was born Kim Schmitz, is still having fun at the expense of his neighbors and the media.


He remains in police custody until an extradition hearing is held. The United States wants to bring DotCom and three associates, two of which have been released on bail, back here to stand trial.
Odds are this story is going to play out over a long period and won't be boring.

Kim Dotcom loses No. 1 spot in Modern Warfare 3 rankings

Kim Dotcom, the founder of file-sharing site MegaUpload is currently in a jail cell somewhere in New Zealand after pleading not guilty on charges of piracy. He is most likely sitting there concerned about his future, but he also has another thing to worry about today: his Modern Warfare 3 rank.


As well as making millions from MegaUpload, Kim Dotcom is (was?) a serious Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 player. He is known as MEGARACER in-game, and just before 2012 came around, he managed to attain the No. 1 position in the multiplayer rankings after a session that lasted well over 7 hours. So pleased was he and his friends with the achievement, they filmed the session and posted this video celebrating the event on YouTube:


Of course, being arrested means you can’t keep playing the game, and the inevitable has now happened. No. 2 player Arazos has continued playing and improved his stats to the point where he now ranks higher than Dotcom. Azaros’ impressive stats include 181,800 kills, 63,418 deaths, and a points total of 9.09 million. MEGARACER has 180,980 kills, 86,241 deaths, and 9.05 million points.


Unless Dotcom has a great team of lawyers who can either get him out on bail, or have an Xbox 360 setup in his cell, he’s going to continue to fall down the rankings. For Azaros, it may be an empty victory as the guy he is replacing at the top has a great excuse for not playing the game at the moment.


We’d say Dotcom has bigger things to worry about than MW3, but you don’t get to No. 1 without obsessively playing the game. It has surely registered at some point over the last few days that he’s lost the top spot, though.

Kim Dotcom neighbors thought BMI would get him before FBI

Put a high-profile hacker and millionaire (on paper at least) in jail and the stories soon start appearing about his personality and his past. And that seems to be the case for the recently arrested MegaUpload founder Kim Dotcom. The latest nuggets of information about him come from his neighbors in New Zealand, one of which is really surprised the authorities managed to take him down.


The reason she is surprised isn’t because she thought Kim Dotcom was too clever to be caught. Instead, she was convinced his weight problems and body mass index (BMI) would be his undoing. As you can see from pictures of Dotcom, he has always had a weight problem and surely classes as obese.

We have also learned from an e-mail he sent, that Dotcom did have a sense of humor and tried to be friendly with the people living around him. When he found out his neighbors were sending concerned emails to each other discussing his criminal past, he responded in an attempt to alleviate their fears. He pointed out his hacking conviction was 15 years ago, and his insider trading was a decade old. All he wants is a “a chance to do good for New Zealand and possibly the Neighborhood.”


His neighbors may have given him a chance if it wasn’t for the last line of the email, which read, “If you feel like it come over for coffee sometimes[sic]. And don’t forget to bring the cocaine (joke).”
In the end, his neighbors fears turned out to be true, and Kim Dotcom is now facing piracy charges, which he has pleaded not guilty to. So far he’s been unable to secure bail, and every day he doesn’t, his Modern Warfare Ranking is going to get worse.

Richard Dower

Another one bites the dust....tbh, never heard of it: http://www.bgr.com/2012/02/22/authorities-take-down-another-popular-file-sharing-site-arrest-founder-for-piracy/

bpb101

of anything it will increase piracy , those who use to watch these video on megavideo will move to a site where you dont have to wait for 54 minutes every 72

hence increasing piracy

subway

1 month on and its barely a blip on the radar.
if anything, more people (i know) are pirating as they all started asking "what was the megaupload thing about" and are now all telling each other about the multitude of streaming services that half them never even knew existed

Dr Bob

bpb101 wrote: »

of anything it will increase piracy , those who use to watch these video on megavideo will move to a site where you dont have to wait for 54 minutes every 72

hence increasing piracy

you know that you just needed to switch your router off and on again* instead of waiting 54 minutes...right?
(Cough ..I mean allegedly, not that I ever used such sites ..cough)




*unless you have static IP which most home users probably dont..

Cantona's Collars

luas_dublin wrote: »

you know that you just needed to switch your router off and on again* instead of waiting 54 minutes...right?
(Cough ..I mean allegedly, not that I ever used such sites ..cough)




*unless you have static IP which most home users probably dont..

Or let it buffer completely and click work offline on your 'puter.

It has had zero effect on piracy imo.I rarely used it but used other sites and as the quality of streaming has increased the increase in it's use has also.

A mate of mine is terrified to download anything but is starting to stream stuff after I showed him how easy it is to find the stuff he wants to watch.

briany

zerks wrote: »

Or let it buffer completely and click work offline on your 'puter.

It has had zero effect on piracy imo.I rarely used it but used other sites and as the quality of streaming has increased the increase in it's use has also.

A mate of mine is terrified to download anything but is starting to stream stuff after I showed him how easy it is to find the stuff he wants to watch.

Streaming is like the less creepy equivalent of peering into your neighbors front room while they watch a DVD which we'll probably see an eventual rise in, the way things are going.