First steps of SOPA! megaupload.com is now gone?!

flamebeaux

News spreads fast, thanks to the internet, so do files as well. but not one of the biggest sites to pass files is gone? I just hope they are blacking out temporarily but rumors are spreading that this was done by the federal government! SOPA hasn't been passed has it?!

Come on guys fight this thing!

Wolfenpride

Yea looks like it's shut down.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2012/01/file-sharing-megaupload-shut-down-for-piracy-by-feds.html

It's a shame, but I kind of figured it'd be put down sooner or later.

Cleffy

SOPA is not actually needed to shut down sites like the Pirate Bay or Mega Upload.  Its possible to shut them down through the court system if they are clearly spreading illegal copies of IP.  SOPA doesn't actually add much to the table to protect IPs.  What it does is allow access for the federal government to censor the internet.  It also allows larger companies to use its power as a means to control messages about their companies.  For instance a car review site might be shut down for giving a bad review on a Chrysler.  It can also be used for anti-competition practices.

77lolmac77

yeah I saw this on CNN and laughed

http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/20/business/megaupload-shutdown/index.html?hpt=us_c1

am I mistaken or did the whole Anonymous group form off of 4chan? or was it around before that and just used 4chan as a place to make fun of stuff?

either way it's becoming less and less anonymous, and starting to attack the wrong people.

Between the mexican drug cartels and the U.S. govt, these guys are seriously putting their necks out there

and there's other sites besides Megaupload fyi

Darkholme

This demonstrates that there is clearly no need for SOPA or PIPA.

It also demonstrates how ineffectual this type of thing is against piracy. Most file sharing clearing house sites have already started and some cases finished migrating their content to one or more of the other dozens of file sharing sites on the internet. Not to mention that some of the admins of the Mega sites have already started the wheels turning on bringing back the main Mega sites. 

My question is, what about the millions of legitimate users of the Mega sites that didn't do anything wrong? Not only did they lose whatever subscription fee they had paid to use the service, but they lost anything and everything that they stored there.

This isn't just about the people they busted and whether they deserved it...

LowFlyingHam

I knew it was coming sooner or later for MegaUpload.  MU seems to be the slowest site of them all when it comes to removing copyrighted content off of its service(if it removes the infringing content at all).

Man1ac

It was the fastest for downloading files as a free user, rip MU :'(