The feds shut down Megaupload today, and the RIAA is juiced. In a statement released after the DOJ killed Megaupload. The RIAA celebrated victory by with a hearty diatribe vilifying Megaupload.
You can’t read the RIAA’s statement online, because its website was just hacked and taken down by Anonymous, but we got it straight from the organisation itself. No surprise it’s quick to convict Megaupload of some lofty offenses.
This also demonstrates the malicious intent of the criminal operators behind these illegal sites, which poses a very real and serious problem for the creative community. Anyone who doubts that should read this indictment closely. The government has many tools at its disposal, including criminal prosecution. But if this service were hosted and operated, for example, in a foreign country, our government would be essentially powerless to do anything about it. That needs to change.
The RIAA is excited, and even if the organisation has used some choice words before, it has really outdone itself here by calling Megaupload “criminal operators” with the “malicious intent” of undermining the “creative community”, and throwing in a plug for SOPA to boot. Impressive. Don’t forget, though, that Megaupload hasn’t been convicted of anything yet, and that a big part of the creative community the RIAA claims to represent supports Megaupload.
The RIAA doesn’t have a statement on the Anonymous hack yet, but we’ll keep you posted.