Now the Megaupload 2.0 will add an exact record to their service.
How are all these services that praised anonymity now requiring less of it?
[edit] Also worth noting that I signed up using the Tor Browser Bundle and that there was no issue, no captchas etc.
Hopefully his undeserved Robin-Hood glamour from government-troubles has faded by now.
[0]: http://geeksnack.com/mega-founder-reveals-bill-liu-5th-most-...
[1]: http://i.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/national-news/86407...
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You could say the same thing about the internet providers, where streaming media of copyrighted content consists of the majority of their traffic.
The providers do not know what streams are valid or invalid, and we do not want them to have the ability or right to monitor all of our internet traffic to determine that.
They know that many of their users are likely streaming or downloading media from sources that do not compensate the content creators. But they also know that if they start identifying that, then they'll start being liable.
Kim Dotcom was in the same situation. He knew that people on his platform were likely using it for file storage of files they didn't own the distribution rights to or own a license to have a personal copy of.
He was legally been unable to start going through those and removing access (unless reported through a DMCA-like-mechanism) because then he would be moderating his platform and that opens him up to liability if his moderation tactics are not 100% effective.
Safe Harbor provisions are important and he was trying to keep them in place for his service.
THAT isn't just innocent "we don't want to know", that's intentionally infringing. I have absolutely no love for the MAFIAA and their ilk, but let's not pretend Dotcom was some sort of martyr.
A fairly insightful article on the whole affair: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/12/us-unveils-the-ca...
And this: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/12/us-unveils-the-ca...
And if you're feeling feisty: https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/usao-edva/legacy...
What Kim Dotcom and MegaUpload purposefully and willfully schemed to accomplish is in no way comparable to to ISPs. And saying as such is anything but childish.
Users were paid for having files that were frequently downloaded. Some of those users were hit with repeated DMCA takedowns. What do you think happens to a repeat offender on DMCA? Do they get their account shutdown? Nope! They get rewarded with a bigger stash to upload more files.
MegaUpload had many identical files uploaded by many different users. These files were stored as a single file on the server. With each uploader having a unique link to that file. DMCA takedown requests would come in for many of those links. Which MegaUpload would do. However they would leave the file online and in tact with hundreds of other links to the same known to be infringing file. Which makes it effectively impossible to have anything removed.
Read the e-mails. They're beyond damning.
The fact that it was raided and destroyed without a warning made these customer backup disappear overnight.