FBI screw up big, MegaUpload trial may never happen

[CaseAgainstFaith]

    It turns out that the US judge handling the case has serious doubts whether it will ever go to trial due to a procedural error.

    “I frankly don’t know that we are ever going to have a trial in this matter,” Judge [Liam] O’Grady said as reported by the NZ Herald.

    Judge O’Grady informed the FBI that Megaupload was never served with criminal charges, which is a requirement to start the trial. The origin of this problem is not merely a matter of oversight. Megaupload’s lawyer Ira Rothken says that unlike people, companies can’t be served outside US jurisdiction.

    “My understanding as to why they haven’t done that is because they can’t. We don’t believe Megaupload can be served in a criminal matter because it is not located within the jurisdiction of the United States,” Rothken says.

    Megaupload’s lawyer adds that he doesn’t understand why the US authorities weren’t aware of this problem before. As a result Judge O’Grady noted that Megaupload is “kind of hanging out there.”

http://torrentfreak.com/megaupload-trial-may-never-happen-judge-says-120420/

I just wonder if the govt really cares in the end about all this. I mean it certainly makes the FBI look like untrained monkeys and I would honestly love the govt and the server host company that is storing all the megaupload servers to stick the MPAA/RIAA with the final bill.  I would laugh my ass off if that happened!

[starseeker]

Was wondering how they were gonna try and try a non-US based company under US law. The whole mess just looks ill-thought-out.

[Sylvana]

Was wondering how they were gonna try and try a non-US based company under US law. The whole mess just looks ill-thought-out.

That depends on the actual goal of the RIAA/MIAA. The massive disruption to megaupload and the general fear it has spread in file hosting around the internet is probably what they are after. Almost none of the previously common file hosting sites allow uploads anymore, and barely allow downloads. The complete disruption of the lives of the people involved have large segments of the file sharing communities shaken. All in all piracy in general must have taken a noticeable knock. Also, even if nothing comes from the whole debacle, its unlikely megaupload will ever be able to resume business again as their entire operations have been turned upside down, not to mention it being doubtful anyone will trust them again.

The RIAA/MIAA has effectively crushed one of their most noticeable competitors and dealt a nasty blow to internet piracy in general. I am pretty sure they are happy with the outcome despite being unable to perform the coup de grace.

[Her3tiK]

Somehow, I doubt the Gov't gives a damn about this issue. It got the site shut down, therefore accomplishing it's objectives. Who cares about the legality of how they did it?

[Distind]

Judge O’Grady informed the FBI that Megaupload was never served with criminal charges, which is a requirement to start the trial. The origin of this problem is not merely a matter of oversight. Megaupload’s lawyer Ira Rothken says that unlike people, companies can’t be served outside US jurisdiction.

I think two things reading this,

HAH!

and

"Companies are people!"

Be funny as shit if this case could be used as precedent that corporations are NOT people, and cannot be treated as such. But I doubt it since it's an international matter.

[CaseAgainstFaith]

Was wondering how they were gonna try and try a non-US based company under US law. The whole mess just looks ill-thought-out.

That depends on the actual goal of the RIAA/MIAA. The massive disruption to megaupload and the general fear it has spread in file hosting around the internet is probably what they are after. Almost none of the previously common file hosting sites allow uploads anymore, and barely allow downloads. The complete disruption of the lives of the people involved have large segments of the file sharing communities shaken. All in all piracy in general must have taken a noticeable knock. Also, even if nothing comes from the whole debacle, its unlikely megaupload will ever be able to resume business again as their entire operations have been turned upside down, not to mention it being doubtful anyone will trust them again.

The RIAA/MIAA has effectively crushed one of their most noticeable competitors and dealt a nasty blow to internet piracy in general. I am pretty sure they are happy with the outcome despite being unable to perform the coup de grace.

What I am curious about is while yes the shock happened across all cloud storage systems, however if this falls through and no actual "legal precedent" is set I'm sure the shock will wear off eventually.  Also it might give the image of ya you might be able to seize servers in the US so I'll just keep them out of the US and make a MegaUpload 2.0 in a "safer" country and now you can't touch me altogether.  All you can do is go to the end of your rope (jurisdiction) and bark.

[starseeker]

The whole cyber lockers ecosystem is calming down and coalescing, there's nothing as good as MU was so keeping files up is much more of a game of whack-a-mole, but it is rebuilding. There's no big #1 yet though.

[Witchyjoshy]

If they were trying to instill fear, the fact that they're completely unable to legally do anything is going to result in just the opposite.

[starseeker]

It caused more panic than fear, which mellowed out into annoyance.

[MadCatTLX]

The whole cyber lockers ecosystem is calming down and coalescing, there's nothing as good as MU was so keeping files up is much more of a game of whack-a-mole, but it is rebuilding. There's no big #1 yet though.

As I've recently got into paper-crafting I've noticed that almost all the paper-crafters have moved there files to either 4shared or Mediafire, with the occasional link to MU. What I want to know is if MU is coming back, and if so will all the old files still be there? I've RAGE'd a couple times when I try to download the files for an awesome paper-craft and end up on the "MU has been seized" page.

I don't think it's done a damn thing to stop pirates. There's almost nothing you can do to stop it.

[starseeker]

The whole cyber lockers ecosystem is calming down and coalescing, there's nothing as good as MU was so keeping files up is much more of a game of whack-a-mole, but it is rebuilding. There's no big #1 yet though.

As I've recently got into paper-crafting I've noticed that almost all the paper-crafters have moved there files to either 4shared or Mediafire, with the occasional link to MU. What I want to know is if MU is coming back, and if so will all the old files still be there? I've RAGE'd a couple times when I try to download the files for an awesome paper-craft and end up on the "MU has been seized" page.

I don't think it's done a damn thing to stop pirates. There's almost nothing you can do to stop it.

I'd like MU to come back as well, though the people I know that use cyberlockers a lot are using them for 200mb+ files so 4shared and Mediafire aren't used that much, a different set of about 3 or so are, but the favourite changes on a weekly basis as one gets popular, puts up limits, so people move on again.

[Osama bin Bambi]

Dear FBI:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrjwaqZfjIY" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrjwaqZfjIY</a>

Love,

Wykked Wytch

[erictheblue]

My Civil Procedure books are packed so I can't look it up, but it sticks in my head that there is a way to serve an international agency if they have "significant ties" to the US. In other words, all the FBI has to do is SERVE the corporation in question and the issue goes away.

[The Bright Angel]

the news had finally made my day despite the news about CISPA and the cut in education. Why are these people allowed to help the rich people but not the little guy. Are they fricken serious. I do like the fact that they shot themselves in the foot since now more sites won't have to worry about this now due to no persecution on this case.

[Sylvana]

What I am curious about is while yes the shock happened across all cloud storage systems, however if this falls through and no actual "legal precedent" is set I'm sure the shock will wear off eventually.  Also it might give the image of ya you might be able to seize servers in the US so I'll just keep them out of the US and make a MegaUpload 2.0 in a "safer" country and now you can't touch me altogether.  All you can do is go to the end of your rope (jurisdiction) and bark.

I did consider that, but there is also the fact that the megaupload servers were not in the US. Although the people and companies in question cannot be legally tried, there is nothing stopping the FBI from pulling this kind of stunt again. The companies in the USA get their pet government agencies to exert political pressure on other countries and all of a sudden you have a large join operation that arrests people all over the world seizing all their assets and generally making their life hell. Sure, nothing will happen legally, but having your life turned completely upside down and having everything you own just randomly taken away is a pretty noticeable problem when it comes to trying to start up again.
The megaupload stunt is similar to the Wikileaks stunt the US pulled. They can and will pull these things again, and it does have real consequences for the cloud server companies. That said, they still wont stop piracy. Piracy has been around since before dial-up modems it will continue. However with stunt like this those companies manage to get their impotent revenge.