I had no idea Swizz Beats was CEO of megaupload.


Megaupload Shut Down After Piracy Indictment
Posted in Entertainment, Featured Content, Featured Music Content, Music | Tagged indictment, MegaUpload, Swizz Beatz
By TST Staff on January 19, 2012



Megaupload, one of the world’s largest file-sharing services, has been shut down by federal prosecutors, according to CBS News, and some of the company’s employees have been indicted.

New York Times reports that the file-sharing giant is accused in the indictment of “costing copyright holders more than $500 million in lost revenue from pirated films and other content.”

As previously reported, Kasseem Dean, better known by his platinum hip hop production alias Swizz Beatz has revealed himself to be the CEO MegaUpload.com.

The site came under fire after a questionably strange music video promoting the site featuring testimonials by Diddy, Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, Will.i.am, Chris Brown and the Game hit the net. Universal Music Group, the label of Diddy, Will.i.am and Kanye West issued a take down notice for the video as their appearances were deemed as unauthorized performances.

MegaUpload then issued a lawsuit against Universal to stop it from blocking the distribution of the video, stating that they have legal agreements with each individual artist involved.

Can someone explain how swizz beats got to be the CEO?
Is the dude the pirating kang pin??

Eclectic Soul/Sunday, 2-4 PM est/89.3 WCSB.ORG

as a sucker that would take the fall?

phemom's the name, all-star writer/
searching 4 journalistic fame, mindframe igniter....www.twitter.com/hayabusaage

There's no way he was anything more than a figure head. It'll be interesting to see if he has to deal with any charges. The owner had just flown him down to New Zealand (where the owner, a former super hacker, lives) so I wonder what they were discussing/organising.

"Yes I see all the nummmberrs... I still root for the dreeeamerrs... I thank God for the dreeeamerrs..." - Mos

Rest In Peace, Bad News Brown

>

this is some BULLSHIT...

no biggie

Lies run sprints.
Truths run marathons.

jaywonder.tumblr.com

>this is some BULLSHIT...
>
>

....megaupload. And yeah, so i guess Puffy and Kim K., had their hands in the pot, too ? Cause their faces were posted up on the Megaupload site. Diggity Damn !!!!!!



silk.later Reunion radio with Old P. & Silk http://reunionradio.blogspot.com/

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R.I.P Jamie Hubley

hohoho. It's a mad mad mad mad world.

I thought the same thing checking my internet bill once. "They charged me $20 extra dollars!?!?"

Meanwhile, I was probably consuming the equivalent of a thousand dollars in physical media per month. Probly way more if you took the comparison literally. I don't download...but even streaming a tune of youtube....you'd have to buy that shit in 1989 to hear it.

*reads mtv story*

Oh snap, wow.

n

http://www.last.fm/user/_CondoM_/

http://www.last.fm/user/_CondoM_/

Working over here.

~Austin

"Where in the world is your inspiration to say the things you're aching to say?"

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7 Charged as F.B.I. Closes a Top File-Sharing Site
By BEN SISARIO

In what the federal authorities on Thursday called one of the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought, the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation seized the Web site Megaupload and charged seven people connected with it of running an international enterprise based on Internet piracy.

Coming just a day after civil protests in the United States over proposed antipiracy bills, the arrests were greeted almost immediately with digital Molotov cocktails. The hacker collective that calls itself Anonymous attacked the Web sites of the Justice Department and several major entertainment companies and trade groups in retaliation for Megaupload’s seizure. The Justice Department’s site and several others remained inaccessible for much of Thursday afternoon.

Megaupload, one of the most popular so-called locker services on the Internet, allowed users to anonymously transfer large files like movies and music. Media companies have long accused it of abetting copyright infringement on a vast scale. In a grand jury indictment, Megaupload is accused of causing $500 million in damages to copyright owners and of making $175 million through selling ads and premium subscriptions.

Four of the seven people, including the site’s founder, Kim Dotcom (born Kim Schmitz), have been arrested in New Zealand, the authorities said; the three others remain at large. Each of the seven people — who the indictment said were members of a criminal group it called “Mega Conspiracy” — is charged with five counts of copyright infringement and conspiracy. The charges could result in more than 20 years in prison.

As part of the crackdown, more than 20 search warrants were executed in the United States and in eight other countries. About $50 million in assets were also seized, as well as a number of servers and 18 domain names that formed Megaupload’s network of file-sharing sites.

Ira P. Rothken, a lawyer for Megaupload, said in a phone interview on Thursday that “Megaupload believes the government is wrong on the facts, wrong on the law.”

The case against Megaupload comes at charged time, a day after broad online protests against a pair of antipiracy bills in Congress, the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, in the House, and the Protect I.P. Act, or PIPA, in the Senate.

The bills would give federal authorities expanded powers to crack down on foreign sites suspected of piracy. But technology companies and civil liberties groups say that the powers are too broadly defined and could effectively result in censorship. On Wednesday, Google and Wikipedia joined dozens of sites in political theatrics by blacking out some content and explaining their arguments against the laws.

Anonymous, which has previously set its sights on PayPal, Sony and major media executives, was more blunt in its response. The group disabled the Justice Department’s site for a time, and it also claimed credit for shutting down sites for the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America, two of the most powerful media lobbies in Washington, as well as those of the Universal Music Group, the largest music label, and BMI, which represents music publishers.

“Let’s just say, for #SOPA supporters their #SOPAblackout is today,” Anonymous wrote in a Twitter post. In an e-mail, a spokesman for the group said it was responsible for the Web attacks.

The Megaupload case touches on many of the most controversial aspects of the antipiracy debate. Megaupload and similar sites, like Rapidshare and Mediafire, are often promoted as being convenient ways to legitimately transfer large files; a recent promotional video had major stars like Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas singing Megaupload’s praises. But they have become notorious inside media companies, which see the legitimate uses as a veil concealing extensive theft.

Mr. Dotcom, a portly 37-year-old with dual Finnish and German citizenship, has made himself a visible target. He splits his time between Hong Kong and New Zealand and casts himself in flamboyant YouTube videos. His role as one of the most prominent Web locker operators has earned him a half-joking nickname in Hollywood: Dr. Evil.

According to the indictment, he earned $42 million from Megaupload’s operations in 2010.

The indictment against Megaupload, which stems from a federal investigation that began two years ago, was handed down by a grand jury in Virginia two weeks ago but was not unsealed until Thursday.

It quotes extensively from correspondence among the defendants, who work for Megaupload and its related sites. The correspondence, the indictment says, shows that the operators knew the site contained unauthorized content.

The indictment cites an e-mail from last February, for example, in which three members of the group discussed an article about how to stop the government from seizing domain names.

The Megaupload case is unusual, says Orin S. Kerr, a law professor at George Washington University, in that federal prosecutors obtained the private e-mails of Megaupload’s operators in an effort to show they were operating in bad faith.

“The government hopes to use their private words against them,” Mr. Kerr said. “This should scare the owners and operators of similar sites.”

Nicole Perlroth contributed reporting.

______******_______******______******

" ... You know, ya'll laugh at the wrong shit ... "
-- Eddie Murphy

~Austin

"Where in the world is your inspiration to say the things you're aching to say?"

http://austintayeshus.blogspot.com

http://www.last.fm/user/Austintayeshus

http://twitter.com/Austintayeshus

______________________________________________________________
http://twitter.com/Gedi

"This is your world. Shape it or someone else will." - Gary Lew

revenue streams. i imagine that the energy spent on this crap, could be spent improving product and coming up with new ways to make money. it is like the war on drugs, cept everybody does it, no way to win.

revenue streams. i imagine that the energy spent on this crap, could be spent improving product and coming up with new ways to make money. it is like the war on drugs, cept everybody does it, no way to win.

The fact is illegal stuff is illegal. We can try to justify it or say it's inevitable, or that it's prosecuted wrong, but if the activity is illegal it's still going to be illegal.

If a store is selling goods which people keep walking by and stealing, you may see the store as lazy and needing to adjust it's business to make money. But the fact is, people shouldn't be stealing their goods. No matter how stupid the store is, people aren't entitled or justified in any way to steal their goods. Whether they have a good business model is irrelevant.

I'm not trying to act like I'm above downloading stuff. I'm not. But I really don't get how people can take something without paying for it and blame the company that owns it for not adjusting the business model to accommodate for their stealing.

Megaupload is just an online locker, that's it..it's not as if they advertised the files, in fact they did their best to 'hide' them (not to protect any IP's, just to save their own ass). Their issue is that they knew the bulk of their traffic was illegal material and didn't really try to stop it; apparently there are emails of them boasting about it. They didn't really upload any pirated material themselves, they just facilitated the transactions by their very existence.

My beef is that while I understand that megaupload got sloppy as far as those wiretaps are concerned, the reality is that they did nothing but provide a tool that could be used for legit and illegitimate traffic. Punishing them because their users were assholes is a slippery slope.

I wasn't talking about MU or why they got shut down, or if they should have.

I was talking about the mentality of downloaders acting like they are entitled to take something because a company has a flawed business model.

I do think if a distribution model is shitty enough where the 'free' version is more appealing, you really can't blame the thief. Obviously something you don't have to pay for will always win out versus something you do, but because they were so resistant to the new models that people are used to skirting the system because it took them a decade to catch up. I mean, I don't think anyone really wants to hit the filestube, risk adware, mistype the capcha five times, wait a minute to download it, praying the file is the right one, and take a die roll on the quality.

The problem is that 1)as fucked up as it is, the above is sometimes easier then purchasing it online(even in 2012, lol), and 2)Pricing really hasn't stabilized on the various mediums...at times the PHYSICAL media is actually cheaper then the digital versions, lol.

Everyone wants to point towards the down loaders as if they are an amoral shoplifters, but I don't think that is the case. There's a reason why everyone simply stopped paying for music/movies etc, and the fact that they are 'free' imho doesn't completely cover it...not by a long shot.

People don't value things which are free - and people don't value music anymore.

>People don't value things which are free - and people don't
>value music anymore.

That's true.

We see through all that boo boo like it's ghost shit... (c) Quelle Chris

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so pardon me here.

I agree with the assertion that people don't value music like they used to, but in the hip hop realm, there was a REAL chasm between what you would get on an album and on a promotional mixtape in the last decade. in that case, the "free" music was so often better than the "for-pay" music (probably through a number of legal mumbo jumbo that was never resolved)... it almost became a rule.

hip-hop might be an extreme case because major labels deliberately influenced mainline artists to come out with blockbusters every time, so that they could recoup

“UMG knows that we are going to compete with them via our own music venture called Megabox.com, a site that will soon allow artists to sell their creations directly to consumers while allowing artists to keep 90 percent of earnings,” said MegaUpload founder Kim dotcom.

“We have a solution called the Megakey that will allow artists to earn income from users who download music for free,” Dotcom said. “Yes that’s right, we will pay artists even for free downloads. The Megakey business model has been tested with over a million users and it works.”


http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2012/01/24/is-this-the-real-reason-why-megaupload-was-shut-down/

thanks, FBI for ethering that whole dialogue.

for a corp situated in Hong Kong.

And I forgot what data centers they went after, but Non-US Citizens get arrested in their home countries by their home police for basically a non-violent crime.

You mean to tell me the music and movie industry has that much pull, that they can force a US federal agency as well as governments all around the world to arrest and extradite people?

NEW WORLD ORDER INDEED.

I'll let y'all continue to yammer about the cow that done left the barn in 1999.

one
k. orr

so much music that was legally uploaded is gone forever. sad.

Said because of the other services now going down. Actually not sure why I'm defending these guys. I mean obviously I've used them. But not sure I need to be defending them. They were shite overall. But they were apart of the fabric of music these days. This it seems will change things regardless of the legalities involved.
________
Big PEMFin H & z's
█▆▇▅▇█▇▆▄▁▃
http://concretesoundsystem.com
Mo'Nium - http://monium.tumblr.com/

"When the music stops he falls back into this abyss."

Since for alot of 'big' releases they used them as opposed to their own webservers to avoid the traffic(and the fees involved with it).

ie it's the mole?
________
Big PEMFin H & z's
█▆▇▅▇█▇▆▄▁▃
http://concretesoundsystem.com
Mo'Nium - http://monium.tumblr.com/

"When the music stops he falls back into this abyss."

Seriously tho, that hulkshare digital rights management link looked more like a feeble attempt for them to be like, 'we are one of the good guys'. In the good old days (last week) most of my new album links came from elsewhere...most of the time if I was downloading from hulkshare it tended to be grey area shit...i.e. mixtapes.

Then again I am part of the conspiracy to stay hulkshare cakey, I will admit I am completely unbiased and just typed that out for them to get a few more hits and me more moolah in my pocket.

when i thought one couldn't get more ghetto than zshare.
i really despised anything released on it.
________
Big PEMFin H & z's
█▆▇▅▇█▇▆▄▁▃
http://concretesoundsystem.com
Mo'Nium - http://monium.tumblr.com/

"When the music stops he falls back into this abyss."

hulkshare has no wait, it's just a little dubious from a malware/adware perspective

consider that a lot of artists and labels send their music to bloggers, and a lot of these hulkshare and other links are legal via promotion

*runs around like chicken with head cut off*

No more free music, tv shows, hollywood blockbusters, books, and my beloved pr0n!

*emerges from cave....*
"What is this blinding light?*

lol

Megaupload - Closed.
FileServe - Stopped filesharing. You can only download your own files. Deleting multiple files. Banning Premium accounts. Closed Affiliate Program.
FileJungle - Deleting files. Owned by Fileserve (same as above). Testing USA IP addresses blocking.
FileSonic - Stopped filesharing. You can only download your own files. Closed Affiliate Program. Changed server location Jan 22, 2012. Taken down it's Facebook page Now using Digital fingerprinting. Files are being deleted as soon as uploaded (as Hotfile did).
UploadStation - Owned by Fileserve (same as above). Testing USA IP addresses blocking.
VideoBB - Closed Affiliate Program.
Uploaded - Banned U.S. and the FBI went after the owners who are gone.
FilePost - Started suspending accounts with infringing material (as Hotfile did)
Videoz - Closed Affiliate Program.
4shared - Deleting files with copyright and waits in line at the FBI.
MediaFire - Called to testify in the next 90 days and it will open doors pro FBI
Org torrent - could vanish with everything within 30 days "he is under criminal investigation"
Network Share mIRC - awaiting the decision of the case to continue or terminate Torrent everything.
EnterUpload - Down (Redirect)
Koshiki - Operating 100% Japan will not join the SOPA / PIPA
Shienko Box - 100% working China / Korea will not join the SOPA / PIPA
ShareX BR - group UOL / BOL / iG say they will join the SOPA / PIPA

Japan, China and Korea have said NO to the FBI, and that even if laws are passed in the USA, they will not have any value within the sovereignty of their countries!

http://www.last.fm/user/_CondoM_/

oh well.

https://digife.com

This is so cool. So glad to see what comes of this. Eyes wide open.

truly nuthn fuckin with it.

V.

---
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DROkayplayerâ„¢

I tried to tell you guys we were moving towards an Orwellian society- this is just file-sharing sites, wait until citizens start getting labeled "terrorists" under the NDAA - shit is getting real.

~* * *~* * *~* * *~* * *~* * *~* * *~
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---
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FW16: After Migration.

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What the blood claaat ???

I don't think shutting down file/video sharing is what needs to be done here. I'm not defending copyright infringement but these companies should focus on effective ways of distributing the content digitally rather than exploiting the legal system to break the portions of the internet that they don't like.

I buy music and I also download a lot of it for free. However, if I never downloaded stuff for free there are tons of artists that I would have never listened to at all. I love hip hop so that stuff was gonna be copped regardless but with a limited budget I'm not going to be as adventurous with my musical habits. If I download something and find an artist that I really like, I'll be honest I don't always buy that album that I downloaded, but I do support from then on because I'm a fan.

The internet leveled the playing field so content creators couldn't take advantage of their customers anymore. You could argue that if they created the content then it's their right to take advantage if they want but if it's wrong to rob big companies the right to distribute content however they want and charge whatever they want then it's just as wrong to make file sharing an unsustainable business just because it affects your business negatively. Not every business has the staff or ability to police their sites content like Google does.

www.anwarmorse.com
https://www.instagram.com/thereal_anwarmorse99/

granted, even if i were one to buy files, i would be opposed to monopolies, but i will download a free mp3 or sampler on amazon because it's so easy. i'm not sure that effectiveness is the problem. the music that can't be found on iTunes or amazon mp3 is pretty fringe, and even most of that has specialty sites where it can be legally purchased. the problem is that a lot of people consider downloads to have no monetary value. changing distribution isn't going to change that.

The problem is that this is a new era, effective digital distribution is not the same thing as effective physical distribution. a perfect example is that Steve Jobs had the hardest time convincing record labels to let him sell the tracks on the albums individually. They were stuck in the mindset that albums must be sold as one chunk or it doesn't work. Now it's taken for granted that that works better than making people pay for songs they don't really want.

The digital locker was a great addition to digital distribution and that is what finally got me to buy music online instead of in the store. this way your music is backed up indefinitely and accessible/downloadable from any internet connected device. New ideas like these are what they need not to try to tear down legitimate businesses, even if those businesses have the potential for abuse.

If people are making bootleg CDs you don't ban the sale of CDs, or shut down best buy.

www.anwarmorse.com
https://www.instagram.com/thereal_anwarmorse99/

I keep reading this and I wonder what people envision? What do they want exactly?

MF's want free sh*t.

The past decade-plus you've seen all the philosophical arguments, it's "sharing", sell t-shirts, tour, etc.

About the only thing inconvenient about itunes or amazon is you STILL gotta sit with your computer, laptop, or smartphone (*groan*), click your mouse/tap your screen a few times (*gawwwd!*), and, you know, still pay in the end (*sigh*). That's not effective!

__
I don't like the beat anymore because its just a loop. ALC didn't FLIP IT ENOUGH!

Flip it enough? Flip these. Flip off. Go flip some f*cking burgers.(c)Kno

Allied State of the National Electric Beat Treaty Organization (NEBTO)

You obviously didn't read anything I wrote, and trends in digital music consumption support what I'm saying as well. If it were as simple as free vs. not free these companies would have gone out of business years ago. AND that wasn't even the point. The point is the countless gigabytes of legitimate files and the sharing capability that has been lost because a few companies decided they didn't like how some people used a business. why does one business get to shut down another? banks can't shut down gun companies because people can rob banks with guns, they just have to buy safes, better alarms, etc.

www.anwarmorse.com
https://www.instagram.com/thereal_anwarmorse99/

>You obviously didn't read anything I wrote, and trends in
>digital music consumption support what I'm saying as well. If
>it were as simple as free vs. not free these companies would
>have gone out of business years ago. AND that wasn't even the
>point. The point is the countless gigabytes of legitimate
>files and the sharing capability that has been lost because a
>few companies decided they didn't like how some people used a
>business. why does one business get to shut down another?
>banks can't shut down gun companies because people can rob
>banks with guns, they just have to buy safes, better alarms,
>etc.

The "more effective digital distribution" talking point seems to come up more and more now and I don't know, I think it's yet another convenient, kinda smart-sounding argument that means what exactly?

Make every change you want and tell me how the consumer gets what they want while appropriate parties get financial compensation?

I'm sorry, but a GANG of folks want a model where they get it for free. Amazon, itunes, etc. have shown that you CAN get a lot of people to pay for digital files, but just as many want to continue getting free stuff*.

As for your comments above, I'm curious what the ratio of legitimate-to-illegal files is with these sites? And even if the ratio did swing wildly towards illegal files, you ask a good question as to whether that still justifies shutting them down because people use it to share illegal stuff.







*I do it, not saying I don't, but it's not because I found the distribution ineffective so I was "forced" to steal it lol. NOT saying that's your position, but I've read folks essentially arguing that people would LOVE to pay for the stuff they've been stealing but they're left no choice because the way digital content is sold and distributed isn't meeting their needs. C'mon, man.
__
I don't like the beat anymore because its just a loop. ALC didn't FLIP IT ENOUGH!

Flip it enough? Flip these. Flip off. Go flip some f*cking burgers.(c)Kno

Allied State of the National Electric Beat Treaty Organization (NEBTO)

...the stuff iTunes and Amazon does not carry ...out of print rare releases from years past ...sure i can get the latest Katey Perry album, but how about that vinyl only indi-hip hop underground release from 96????

>...the stuff iTunes and Amazon does not carry ...out of
>print rare releases from years past ...sure i can get the
>latest Katey Perry album, but how about that vinyl only
>indi-hip hop underground release from 96????

Sure, there's probably a gang of super obscure stuff you could bring up as not being on there, but it's not like you can only find Katy Perry or Bruno Mars, either:

Gangrene "Vodka & Ayahuasca​"
KRS-One "BDP Album"
Has-Lo "Conversation B"
Action Bronson & Statik Selektah "Well Done"

These are off my amazon wishlist and I'd think by any reasonable measure those could be called under the radar/indy/obscure releases.

If the argument is amazon or itunes aren't up to snuff because they don't have every single piece of recorded music ready to download then I guess we'll never have something that could make everyone happy.

But as for your specific "vinyl only indi-hip hop underground release from 96" example, I agree, that's where a megaupload serves a valuable purpose of helping share a forgotten gem. Shame we don't have music stores anymore. But that's still a VERY specific situation lol.


__
I don't like the beat anymore because its just a loop. ALC didn't FLIP IT ENOUGH!

Flip it enough? Flip these. Flip off. Go flip some f*cking burgers.(c)Kno

Allied State of the National Electric Beat Treaty Organization (NEBTO)

If you have the tangible vinyl piece, the selling price on ebay just went up. lol

Seriously tho....that is some bullshit cause alotta the shit that we like is that hard to find, lightning in a bottle shit like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwLEY7l5F40 that beyond S&B, nobody woulda ever knew existed....

They tryin to kill our memories with this.

And what about music collabin' with huge ass PT files emailed back and forth?

No more foreign exchange style music making in the future?

smh

We see through all that boo boo like it's ghost shit... (c) Quelle Chris

| http://liveguy.bandcamp.com |
| www.soundcloud.com/liveguy |
| www.twitter.com/liveguy |
| www.instagram.com/theREALliveguy |
| XBOX ONE GT: theREALliveguy |

There's a bunch of free-jazz albums from the 60's-70's that's been OOP since then or at best reissued in Japan in reissues that are now almost as rare or pricey as the originals. I REALLY don't want to lose the chance to hear that stuff since the only other alternative unless your'e REALLY lucky @ a digging session is to buy on ebay for ridiculous prices (i've done that too BTW but there's a limit...); money that for the record doesn't help the artist at all unless you argue that steep prices will make it easier to get a reissue since they prove there's an interest.

The counter-argument then is of course that a reason rare stuff doesn't get reissued is because of illegal downloads but how long are you supposed to wait? Also, in the case of this particular (and *tiny* audience), I really don't think that's a problem; if there is a reissue, it will get bought, I'm sure I'm not just talking for myself here...

Outside of this, this shit don't really phase me, people can afford to buy one record every week or at least two a month and if you do that for two years, you will have like fifty to hundred records added to the ones you own and-presumably-listen to;how much music does someone NEED? Also,there's spotify, there's youtube and a lot of other shit...

But It's true. People's needs aren't being met. And when they are they will pay. The problem is that we are judging by old standards. I'm not saying that I have the content distribution system thing figured out I'm just saying that brand new distribution models are out there now and there are more that you or I haven't/wouldn't think of but they could be just as if not MORE effective than trying to break the internet.

MP3 lockers
rdio,spotify etc.

These may not work as well as the content owners would wish but if they were busy thinking up a better way to do business rather than a better way to destroy someone else business I think all parties would be better off.

www.anwarmorse.com
https://www.instagram.com/thereal_anwarmorse99/

so digital converters....(vinyl rippers, etc.)

Are they gonna force companies to stop making and selling those?

Promo services that send out new music to DJ's via email/mp3 format....is that gonna be killed?

Where's the line?

I mean.....record companies still pay folks to promote their music via promo services, so are they gonna go back to CD/Vinyl distribution?

Thats hella expensive....

It's like, they love the cheap and easy method of promoting to the DJ, so I know they dont wanna go back to pressing up shit to give away to DJ's but man.....if its mp3, it can be emailed via gmail....

They gonna shut down gmail?

Where does it end?

We see through all that boo boo like it's ghost shit... (c) Quelle Chris

| http://liveguy.bandcamp.com |
| www.soundcloud.com/liveguy |
| www.twitter.com/liveguy |
| www.instagram.com/theREALliveguy |
| XBOX ONE GT: theREALliveguy |

>
>I mean.....record companies still pay folks to promote their
>music via promo services, so are they gonna go back to
>CD/Vinyl distribution?
>

~Austin

just seems like a coup on behalf of the music industry and it's artists.

the whole concept of the video is just a tad suspect.

***

"I am a human being becoming, help me become."

i mean.... isn't a dropbox public link the same as a megaupload/mediafire link? And even a dropbox shared folder with a few individuals is essentially the same, right?

What about Amazon and Google cloud services?

http://www.fastcompany.com/1810967/rapidshare-lawyer-if-were-shut-down-like-megaupload-then-youtube-dropbox-and-apples-icloud-a




RapidShare Attorney: If We're Shut Down Like Megaupload, Then YouTube, Dropbox, Apple's iCloud Are Next
BY Austin CarrToday

RapidShare is one of the world's most popular file-hosting sites, and many have wondered whether the site could be next on the feds' list of targets after Megaupload.

There's been near nuclear fallout from federal prosecutors shuttering of Megaupload, the file-sharing service accused of costing the entertainment industry $500 million in lost revenues. It's estimated that shutting down Megaupload's family of websites, which are accused of hosting massive amounts of copyrighted files, affected 1% of all Internet traffic. The feds are seeking the forfeiture of $175 million from Megaupload's flamboyant founder, Kim Dotcom; sympathetic hacker coalition Anonymous has since launched online attacks against the RIAA, MPAA, and Justice Department; and file-sharing and cloud services from FileSonic to Dropbox are wondering what this could mean for the industry.

On Tuesday, we caught up with RapidShare attorney and spokesman Daniel Raimer. RapidShare is one of the world's most popular file-hosting sites, and many have wondered whether the site could be next on the feds' list of targets. In part one of our two-part interview, Raimer explains why if RapidShare is shut down like Megaupload, then Apple's iCloud, Microsoft's SkyDrive, Google's YouTube, and Dropbox deserve the same fate too.

FAST COMPANY: Do you think Megaupload was fairly or unfairly targeted?

DANIEL RAIMER: I guess that's up to a jury to decide. I'm not a judge, and I don't want to make any verdict. I've seen doing Megaupload doing things that we wouldn't do, and that we strongly discourage, such as their heavy rewards program. But I don't want to say that they're guilty. It's not up to us to decide that.

Do you think federal prosecutors will target RapidShare next?

I don't think so.

Why not?

Let me put it like this. The technology behind Megaupload and RapidShare may be similar, but this is also true for the technology of Microsoft's SkyDrive or Apple's iCloud, which is not too different from what RapidShare is. It's uploading a file, and accessing it over the Internet, or even sharing at certain times with friends. The business from an ethical standpoint is really similar. The main difference is, what exactly is your business model? Are you aiding piracy? Is your intent to make money by attracting pirates and getting attention from copyright pirates? Or do you want to have serious customers and long-time relationships with satisfied people from all over the world, who trust you? That's exactly what we do.

It's a more challenging job because you have to heave good support teams, you have to be innovative, and you have to have a good user interface. Just aiming for piracy is probably cheaper and more effective in the short term, but RapidShare is definitely aiming for legitimate use, and we have been very strict and effective on cracking down on piracy, and scaring pirates away from our system.

You've compared RapidShare to Apple and Microsoft. In a statement RapidShare released this week, the company compared itself to Dropbox and YouTube. Is there a push to imply that RapidShare's business model is just as legitimate as Google's, Apple's, Microsoft's, and Dropbox's?

Yes.

If RapidShare is shut down like Megaupload, then do you think Dropbox, Apple's iCloud, Microsoft's Skydrive, and other similar services ought to be shut down as well?

Yes. Right now, no one can tell me Dropbox is doing more against piracy than we are. I would go so far as to say that we are really spearheading the industry's effort to catch up with piracy. We were the first ones to implement a repeat-infringement policy. We were the first ones to develop crawling software that is proactively searching the Internet for illegal content on our system. A third of our whole company is dedicated to taking down illegal content. Our response to takedown notices is probably less than an hour during our regular business hours. We really do a lot, and I really believe that others aren't doing half of what we are doing.

I also believe popularity among pirates on these services isn't really that big because people are afraid that Apple knows too much about them, so they don't want to use their iCloud service for non-legitimate purposes. Dropbox has other restraints and slower speeds. On top of that, RapidShare has been the No. 1 file-hosting service since 2005 or 2006, so they've known us for quite a long time. So this is probably why we're facing more illegal content than others. But at the same time, we're more proactive than others.

In the U.S., Apple and Microsoft are seen as large, important, and legitimate companies, whereas Megaupload and RapidShare are foreign entities, in many respects, that do not have strong brands here and are not considered job creators. Do you think this is why Megaupload might be targeted, because it's not a company like Apple?

I can't really comment on that. First off, I don't want to accuse federal prosecutors of being racist, because that's probably not true. But we've never really had any problems with law enforcement in the U.S. I would be surprised if we were to get in trouble. We've always gotten along with officials well. With regard to Megaupload, I think them being located in the New Zealand had nothing to do with the raid. They would've had the same problems if they were based in the U.S.

The RIAA and Congressional members of the International Anti-piracy Caucus have claimed that RapidShare was "overwhelmingly used for the global exchange of illegal movies, music and other copyrighted works."

Why did you read the 2010 report, and not the 2011 one? Because they didn't repeat that after we explained ourselves to them. In last year's publication we were not listed anymore.

How did you change their opinion?

We thought that they were probably wrongly educated, and we didn't know where these quotes were coming from. So we went to Washington, hired a lobbying firm, and explained it to them, and asked, "Hey, why do you think that about us?" We never really got a lot of answers out of them. "Well, we took a lot of factors into consideration. It's so complex that we can't really describe it to you," they said. This wasn't really a good explanation to us. Fortunately, the next report didn't list our name anymore.

Why was Rapidshare.de shut down?

It was a different service that the inventor of RapidShare started because he became incorporated. He started with Rapidshare.de, and it started to get bigger so he decided to start a company, which is RapidShare AG, which is based in Switzerland. After a while the Rapidshare.com service had become much more popular than Rapidshare.de. So he decided to sell his old service to the company, and they then shut it down because it didn't have enough users anymore.

And that had nothing to do with court injunctions or copyrighted content?

No. It was just that the service was pretty old, and everyone was using Rapidshare.com at that point.

Do you check uploaded files against pirated content?

Yes and no. We have a very strict filter that recognizes content that is 100% identical to content that has already been taken down. So a file that is uploaded has to be the exact same file up to a single bit. It cannot be different, even by one bit. If it's different, the filter will not recognize it. So, yes, we do have such a filter, but it's not the type of filter that the content industry is asking for. They're asking for filters such as the ones used for YouTube, where software tries to recognize a certain movie by certain characteristics. Our filter works differently.

There are RapidShare search engines devoted to helping users find links on forums and websites to pirated content on RapidShare. Do you try to stop them?

We do quite a lot. We have filed more than 50 lawsuits in order to shut these websites down. We have been pretty effective doing that. Out of those 50 cases, I would say we've won roughly 45 of them. The problem is that legal actions are tough. We have to prove their are trademark infringement. What we do right now is try to prove these websites are infringing with the help of some software we've developed ourselves to gather information on the content that is published on these systems. So right now, we're taking a software approach, too.

Do you have any connections to Kim Dotcom?

No, I have never talked to him. I've never met him. I have never sent an email to him. I can't speak for the whole company, but I've never had any ties to him. I've seen the guy in German television before he was doing Megaupload because he was notorious in Germany. But I don't have any personal relationship with him, or even talk with him.

Watch for part two of this interview tomorrow, and read Fast Company's previous coverage of the feds' raid on Megaupload and its founder Kim Dotcom here.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2012/01/24/is-this-the-real-reason-why-megaupload-was-shut-down/


The internet is up in arms over the federal crackdown of file-sharing website Megaupload, from irate blog posts to coordinated digital attacks on secure government servers. The move appeared to be a sort of governmental muscle flexing in the wake of the successful internet protest of SOPA and PIPA. But was there another reason? In the weeks before the crackdown, Megaupload was planning on launching a new music sharing website called Megabox that looked like it had the potential to completely transform music distribution, and even find a way to pay musicians in the process.

From TorrentFreak, via Digital Music News:

“UMG knows that we are going to compete with them via our own music venture called Megabox.com, a site that will soon allow artists to sell their creations directly to consumers while allowing artists to keep 90 percent of earnings,” said MegaUpload founder Kim dotcom.

“We have a solution called the Megakey that will allow artists to earn income from users who download music for free,” Dotcom said. “Yes that’s right, we will pay artists even for free downloads. The Megakey business model has been tested with over a million users and it works.”

This smacks a little of conspiracy theory, but there may be some truth to the timing. MegaUpload no doubt looked like a good target for FBI attention even before this new development, considering it was prime hacker territory and and its founder was living like a Colombian drug lord in New Zealand. But the timing seems a little serendipitous, especially since MegaUpload had even begun to acquire legitimate partners in the form of 7digital, Gracenote, Rovi and Amazon.

hydroshare and BeeYoo are two i can name off the top

>“We have a solution called the Megakey that will allow artists
>to earn income from users who download music for free,” Dotcom
>said. “Yes that’s right, we will pay artists even for free
>downloads. The Megakey business model has been tested with
>over a million users and it works.”

It's what they all do.

Slow and dodgy downloads for free users, fast and reliable for paying users

They failed to adapt and that will be their undoing

Probably even easier to find once sites get over the initial megavideo/videobb/videozer etc. shock.

So yeah,

All that copy-written material -still "out there".

A large amount of legitimate files that people needed -gone forever.

www.anwarmorse.com
https://www.instagram.com/thereal_anwarmorse99/

has anyone tried to find anything lately?

LOL!!
________
Big PEMFin H & z's
█▆▇▅▇█▇▆▄▁▃
http://concretesoundsystem.com
Mo'Nium - http://monium.tumblr.com/

"When the music stops he falls back into this abyss."

>has anyone tried to find anything lately?
>
>LOL!!


__
I don't like the beat anymore because its just a loop. ALC didn't FLIP IT ENOUGH!

Flip it enough? Flip these. Flip off. Go flip some f*cking burgers.(c)Kno

Allied State of the National Electric Beat Treaty Organization (NEBTO)

but to answer your question...no...still easy as shit.

it's like 3 filesharing joints that I haven't messed with since the 05/06.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/judge-fifth-amendment-doesnt-protect-encrypted-hard-drives.ars
________
Big PEMFin H & z's
█▆▇▅▇█▇▆▄▁▃
http://concretesoundsystem.com
Mo'Nium - http://monium.tumblr.com/

"When the music stops he falls back into this abyss."