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Comment by gry | Hacker News Reader

SOPA and PIPA would help how? This appears successful without them.

I am assuming because it took 2 years to get to this point. With SOPA and PIPA in place there is no need for a takedown involving the federal authorities. Copyright holders can achieve the same much more quickly by using PIPA and SOPA to starve them of cash and audience.

Or in the case of foreign sites like Megaupload, the Attorney General can just say "We don't like you" and impose a censorship order on all US-based ISPs, ad services, and payment providers.

Edit: Leaving the original text so as not to confuse the conversation. Megaupload is a foreign (to the US) site with a US TLD, not a US-domestic site. The arrests were made around the globe, but mostly in New Zealand. The FBI may have initiated the indictment, but extradition applies, as does the Berne Convention.

SOPA and PIPA are intended to address issues with foreign-hosted sites being used by Americans to pirate American copyrighted works. MegaUpload is a domestic outfit, so they fall under existing copyright law, including DMCA.

The issue with fighting foreign-based sites is that they don't fall under US jurisdiction. Up till now, the RIAA and MPAA have taken to suing Americans using those services. However, that's not really putting a dent in piracy. So, they came up with SOPA and PIPA. Of course, how do you stop Americans from visiting foreign sites which you have no jurisdiction over? Using DNS filtering is the answer they came up with. Of course, they left the language fairly broad, and now they've stricken that part from the bill.

The real issue with SOPA and PIPA is the removal of due process. Since the laws deal with foreign entities, though, the waters get muddied.

My comment was glib. I agree with how SOPA and PIPA removes due process -- one I assume was followed over the course of 2 years. Investigation if a crime was committed, by whom, arrest offenders and confiscate goods.

Whether or not megaupload is guilty, it seems to me this was followed and bridged international boundaries nicking a "foreign" and "rogue site".

As an aside, I don't think megaupload fits a domestic definition. All indicted are apparently not Americans and it is a Hong Kong and New Zealand based organization.

How is Megaupload a domestic entity? All the parties were foreign nationals and were arrested outside of the US. The corporation was out of Hong Kong:

Megaupload Limited P.O. Box No. 28410 Gloucester Road Post Office Hong Kong

You're quite right. Sorry, missed that part. PIPA, I believe, defined foreign sites as foreign TLDs, but for the FBI to arrest people in New Zealand would require extradition or cooperation from New Zealand authorities. Otherwise, I fully expect the US to be invaded by the Kiwis shortly.

MegaUpload are foreign. They're based in Hong Kong.

Also there were pretty high profile domain seizures done in two bouts over the last two years. ICE/DOJ seized domains (google it) - some of those were foreign based but with .com or .net. (I don't recall if any were foreign TLDs) There already doing anything they want anyway - and happily ignoring any due process - codifying these actions into law with PIPA/SOPA is just the icing on the cake.

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