Well that didn’t take long. Pirate Parties International is assembling a list of users who had lost data in MU’s shutdown last week as it builds a case for an upcoming lawsuit against the Feds.
The gist of the lawsuit is that users who had been using the file-storage service of legitimate reasons were unfairly denied access to their personal files due to the FBI’s actions. “The widespread damage caused by the sudden closure of Megaupload is unjustified and completely disproportionate to the aim intended,” said Pirates of Catalonia in a press statement. PPI is currently setting up a complaint submission system and is also looking into whether the FBI’s actions potentially violated US law (though you’d figure the FBI would have checked on that first). [Torrent Freak via Maximum PC]
I'll be extremely shocked if this goes through - surely the responsibility falls on MegaUpload for hosting pirated content, and putting legitimate users files at risk of takedown because of it.
Not just personal users, what about businesses. If this sort of thing can happen, surely it brings into question all cloud storage services even if they are considered reputable. How the hell can any individual know who to trust. Surely administrators should be appointed and an opportunity for honest users to request access to retrieve their property. No different to a storage facility for your excess garage junk etc.
Well really you shouldn't trust them, regardless of who it is. Just as you should back up your own hard disk, anything that goes into the cloud that is mission critical really should have backups somewhere.
So wait, now I need backups of my backups of my backups?
Inception!
Do you have any idea what it would take to police all of the files on any storage network let alone mega upload?
What you are saying is that every piece of information that people have placed on megaupload should be investigated for the content it contains, even though megaupload and the sort are more akin to storage than entertainment. Either way, if youare going to do that you have to look into the user agreement and the law concerning it. Could that not be considered a breach of privacy for the user and could that be ineffect breaking the law.
The amount of information going to these websites means that no truly effective monitoring can take place. Even if you had a Chinese sweatshop full of people going through the data there are easy ways to get around it, considering it allows every file extension in the digital world to be uploaded. If it's a bot then wouldn't people just zip the files and give it a 12 character access code.
I would prefer to see megaupload and others like it still alive because, believe it or not, many digital sound musicians I know use it to flog their new work to others.
I'm no rocket surgeon, but files illegally on MegaUpload could be reported as copyright infringing. You may scoff, but that's how it goes at YouTube, and virtually every other "reputable" entity.
You're joking, right? What are you? The human embodiment of SOPA?
I am wondering if they will argue it as a 4th amendment issue. It would be funny. Basically if a warrant in the U.S. is served on a house with two unrelated renters, only that area that is shared or the he person being served can be searched. It could be argued that if a person could be charged with burglary for using someone’s WIFI from the street then someone accessing cloud data stored server connected to a home computer is really searching an extension of someone’s house. + If any reporter stored files on those servers in cloud format, they may have needed a subpoena (See Gizmodo Fremont search by police related to the phone incident) + If they seized legal paperwork a defended can argue this point.
I hope someone Posts the warrant ;)
to be fair, that is a very serious and legitimate concern
Fair enough, not EVERYTHING on MegaUpload was pirated content!
This will be interesting. I understand their reasons for this lawsuit, but you'd think that allowing the site to continue would lessen the strength of evidence presented to the court at his trial.
This is what I've been wondering about from the start.
Interesting times.. want to see how this goes, I still do all my backups to local storage or family members houses for offsite as I don't trust online storage for personal data for just this reason, it's completely out of your control.... Wonder how Dropbox will go, I'm sure there is also lots of pirate content on there servers accessible and being shared as well, does this mean the FBI could shut them down when ever they feel like it as well?
Yeah this will be interesting indeed, I know Megaupload was where XDA dev's would host their phone firmware mods and similar, hopefully they have backups elseware.
for starters, there is probably a cause in the terms of service that says that data may not be available under unforseen circumstances and that it is up to the user to have their own backups. I don't trish cloud storage one but, but anything I would upload, I would still keep a copy of.
We used this site for legit file sharing that were to big to be emailed. What happens to all the money and data these companies have tied to Megaupload.
So will they shut down the post office for delivering pirated games and movies. Thats all MegaUpload was and online post office _ a way to send an recieve large files.
Intresting.
I've been thinking something like this from the start.
At the very least when the case against DotCom fails (which assuming the money laundering charges don't stick I don't see how it could succeed), MegaUpload themselves could sue the FBI for huge amounts of damages caused by downtime and lost userbase.
Services like MegaUpload are vitally important for the internet, we've been on the web for decades now and this is still the only real way we have of reliably sending files bigger than a few megs.
You don't shut down the postal service when someone mails a pirated disc, you don't shut down the phone lines when someone calls in a bomb threat, you don't kill off sms when a group pulls a Cronulla, and you don't shut down file sharing when some people copy some movies.