Megaupload data could be deleted this week
geek.com
geek.com
Maybe the most logical, but certainly also the most immoral and illegal. That's basically stealing money - why should Megaupload pay for data hosting if it can't use? As long as it's not ruled illegal by the court, it still has the right to use its money just the way it wants.
Why they would agree to it - if convicted they lose that money anyway, if found not guilty, by paying for the servers now they will still have all their data if they decide to get the site back online and resume business as normal.
You need to think about the cost to the hosting company. I assume they are holding a lot of data and a large number of servers are tied up doing nothing without payment. They have every right to clean the server and allocate it elsewhere.
If anyone should be footing the bill it should be the prosecutors themselves. They can't take it from MegaUpload. The defense shouldn't pay for it as the data may actually damage their case. You would expect them to be in a stronger position with the proof gone.
You also need to think about the damage to the company. I am sure the prosecutors think they have a slam-dunk but what if they loose? They would have effectively destroyed a multi-million dollar company as a result of a failed prosecution. You could expect a fairly large compensation package in this scenario.
One reason this may be patently false is that I'm sure Hollywood would love to see people put in jail for copyright infringement.
It very much looks like the seizure process is being used as a directed punitive measure and not merely as an evidence gathering process. We need better laws in the US to protect against seizure being used as non-judiciary, extra-legal punishment.
Am I the only one that finds the use of the word ‘Mega Conspiracy’ in the indictment utterly inappropriate and childish?
Unfortunately Google cache has stopped serving the MU terms of service, but this link still has them: http://www.scribd.com/doc/78876728/Megaupload-Condiciones-de... and there it says:
"No Warranty
You expressly understand and agree that: (a) your use of the Service is at your sole risk. Megaupload Services are provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. Megaupload and its suppliers, to the fullest extent permitted by law, disclaim all warranties, including but not limited to warranties of title, fitness for a particular purpose, merchantability and non-infringement of proprietary or third party rights. Megaupload and its suppliers make no warranties about the accuracy, reliability, completeness, or timeliness of our Services, software, or content; (b) Megaupload makes no warranty that (i) the Service will meet your requirements, (ii) the service will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error-free,(iii) the results that may be obtained from the use of the service will be accurate or reliable, (iv) the quality of any products, services, information, or other material purchased or obtained by you through the Service will meet your expectations, and (v) any errors in the software will be corrected; ..."
Is it me, or is this saying: "We [the author(s) of the page] don't care if he has any evidence proving he is innocent. We just want to see him in jail"
> But just as serious, prosecutors will lose valuable evidence with which to prosecute Megaupload’s owners.
they just pointed out that both sides will lose evidence that might help their case.
With the data deleted isn't it like trying to commit someone of murder after the murder weapon mysteriously vanished?
Perhaps even more importantly, if this data gets destroyed and they can't find further evidence to use against the Megaupload bosses, this would mean a federal bureau effectively destroyed a company without having any evidence of them having committed a crime. That would be a very bad thing, and would set a very, very bad precedent.
The reversal by the Supreme Court a few years later was cold comfort to the shell of the company that was left, the 85,000 people it once employed, the partners who lost the value of their holdings in the company, etc.
(And this hysteria lead to Sar-Box, which just happened to be the final nail in the coffin of the traditional IPO startup exit except for a very few massive successes.)
I don't know if they have any chance of winning, but if they did I can't imagine their being able to rescue the company - even if they did, they surely wouldn't have a hard time showing how much damage the downtime did to them financially. What options would they have?
That said, the users will likely never see a dime because the government's sovereign immunity prevents anyone from suing the federal government over damages relating to law enforcement seizing evidence of a crime.
This immunity is what enables the executive branch of the government to abuse this authority and treat seizure as a form of extra-judicial punishment without going through the courts.
http://www.slashgear.com/megaupload-host-denies-data-delete-....
From a Carpathia rep: “In reference to the letter filed by the U.S. Department of Justice with the Eastern District of Virginia on Jan. 27, 2012, Carpathia Hosting does not have, and has never had, access to the content on MegaUpload servers and has no mechanism for returning any content residing on such servers to MegaUpload’s customers. The reference to the Feb. 2, 2012 date in the Department of Justice letter for the deletion of content is not based on any information provided by Carpathia to the U.S. Government. We would recommend that anyone who believes that they have content on MegaUpload servers contact MegaUpload. Please do not contact Carpathia Hosting”
The internet is trying to be transmogrified into fox news, where you can "tune in" to any government authorized channels. If we don't kick and scream to stop this, we'll wake up and the internet will be "one-way", like TV was in the 1960's.