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Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2012 8:51 am

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16642369

They have already started. Not only they shut down Megaupload , but they also arrested its founders.

If I understand these bills correctly, if someone posted some links in Eater, they have the power to shut it down with a call. So, the mods now need to scan thousands of pages to check if there is any link that would upset some multi-millionaires in Hollywood.
That's very nice Thumbs up

Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2012 11:39 am

^^

This confuses me quite a bit. First off, I thought those laws were shelved, not passed.

Second off, I tried to do a WhoIs on megaupload, and it said Hong Kong. Are their servers located in USA?

Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2012 12:10 pm

The laws weren't passed, so they have used criminal law to stomp on Megaupload, even though IP theft is, on the face of it, a civil matter. Whether this is enforceable we will see, but in the meantime they are down. This looks like plan B of the fight to make the internet consumption led and control what is put on it.

As well as the US bosses, associates in New Zealand were also arrested. I guess HK is where the domain is registered, but the US have gone after the bosses.

I guess all the other file sharing sites must be watching this closely. To be fair they do take down files if there is a copyright complaint, but they do host a lot of stuff that they must know is not the property of the uploader. I guess the test is whether they can be expected to know that, in which case they could be accused of censorship when they take stuff down, and made to monitor content 24/7.

I edited a reference I made naming a couple of other fileshare sites by name, as thats one less mod edit needed if things ever really do hit the fan. As subway 1 said, we could be liable for any reference to where you can download copywrite material from - troubling for anyone who puts content on the web, and why this is so important.

Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2012 2:39 pm

I can see why it would be a problem to have such links. Do you want me to report such posts, as a help?

I have always understood that eater is under British law, as it's located in Britain

Quote:

Hardcore Pornographic images are ABSOLUTELY not allowed. The odd breast or full frontal picture IF NECESSARY to the post is fine, but images of a very sexual nature will be removed immediately when found. Hardcore pornography is illegal in the UK (where this site is located) so please do not give someone an excuse to have this Board shut down.

As bad as it would be to have eater closed for American members (looks like there are someone in that government who prefers to aid scammers to aiding victims), I can't see how American authorities can have any way to shut down a site in a site where they have no jurisdiction.

Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2012 3:05 pm

The bills would allow the US government to censure what US interwebs viewers could see. Ie if a baiter posted a pirated copy of a US singers video on Eater the US could block eater from being viewed by US interwebs users. There is a warning proccess I believe but this would create more work for mods and admins.

I admit I didn't really know too much about the bills until the protest. The protest have been effective creating awareness.

Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2012 6:18 pm

since when has the American government ever minded its own buisness...I am proud to be an American, but very dissapointed in my government. But I do stand by them in the case of megaupload.com and many other "file sharing" sites. It is wrong for someone to make money off of copywritted material and the people arrested (and still at large) were making a killing. I am against flat out censoeship but protecting someone elses property is a differant story.

Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2012 10:07 pm

The shutdown of Megaupload is a different issue entirely. The bills being protested have not been signed - they are shelved - and what they would do is create a gov't run firewall that would determine what U.S. viewers are allowed to see on the internet, technically identical to the censorship of the Chinese gov't. The current case against Megaupload is very similar to the shutdown of Napster and other services a few years back.

Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2012 10:48 pm

Ah, 2013. The upcoming "year of the government rootkit and firewall."

That's as far into this subject that I'll get into on the eater boards, this has politics written all over it, and I don't wanna get a warning Razz

I will say that I lost some data that I had backed up on megaupload because of the seize. I was reinstalling my studio OS and backed up some of my personal music projects on MU, and then they got shut down.

Sigh.

Elite Baiter Joined: 19 Jun 2011 Posts: 1066

Breathe a sigh of relief, guys. I just got word that Congress has shelved SOPA (for now).

Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2012 12:28 pm

In my university it is very common for each faculty to have it's own compilation of useful files for students, such as exams, essays, pdf books, solutions to exercises,etc. We had ours in megaupload and I believe we are not the only ones. Thank you FBI.

IBTL: fuck da police comin' straight from the underground! Very Happy