Weekend tech reading: Examining the 'evidence' against Megaupload

Matthew DeCarlo

Posts: 5,271   +104

Megaupload details raise significant concerns about what DOJ considers evidence of criminal behavior Having spent some more time going through the indictment in much greater detail, I have some more thoughts and concerns. First, it's important to acknowledge that the founder of Megaupload, who goes by Kim Dotcom, has a long history of flouting the law in a variety of ways. That makes him quite unsympathetic in a court. On top of that... Techdirt

Jailed Megaupload king is still the world no. 1 in Modern Warfare 3 Kim Dotcom is the Internet playboy who made his zillions by founding the now-defunct (and Anonymous cause celebre du jour) Megaupload, and also from the blatant hosting of pirated content there. But he also led a secret life, did you know? He is the deadliest shooter in all of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Really. Kotaku (with video)

Ubisoft changes Anno 2070 DRM after Guru3D critique Over the past week a news post of ours resulted in a lot of coverage on the web. Long story short -- while we where testing the RTS game Anno 2070 for PC (from Ubisoft) we ran into downright silly DRM copy protection issues. You may install Anno 2070 on three PCs as you get three activations. That's fair and OK we feel. Guru3D

Western Digital expects to restore output by September Western Digital expects to rebuild its production capacities to pre-flood levels by September, 2012, the company said this week. The manufacturer aims to repair its two factories in Thailand and bring back its output to normal levels in several months from now. Until then, shortages of hard drives will likely persist. X-bit labs

AMD CrossFireX drivers - opportunity lost AMD likes to tell us that it is "Gaming Evolved." The fact of the matter is that when it comes to driver support for its high end GPU configurations in CrossFireX, AMD has been doing anything but evolving. In fact, we think AMD has been regressing in the last year. AMD still has an opportunity to shine in 2012. Will it step up? HardOCP

Man faces five years for ‘God does not exist’ Facebook post 31-year-old Alexander Aan faces a maximum prison sentence of five years for posting "God does not exist" on Facebook. The civil servant was attacked and beaten by an angry mob of dozens who entered his government office at the Dharmasraya Development Planning Board on Wednesday. ZDNet

How U.S. lost out on iPhone work When Barack Obama joined Silicon Valley’s top luminaries for dinner in California last February, each guest was asked to come with a question for the president. But as Steven P. Jobs of Apple spoke, President Obama interrupted with an inquiry of his own: what would it take to make iPhones in the United States? The NY Times

NZXT Switch 810 tower case review At CES 2012, NZXT launched a new full tower case they've dubbed the Switch 810. NZXT is calling this a "hybrid" tower design, suitable for extreme air cooling or complex liquid cooling setups and offering users a choice between maximum airflow or noise reduction. OCIA

Intel Medfield Atom - impact on smartphones and tablets? While Intel is the all dominant king of the PC processor world, it was next to nothing when it comes to the recent fashion fad - smartphones and tablets. While these don't have much dollar revenue per CPU... VR-Zone

Intel shakes up management, appoints COO Intel Corp unveiled a string of management changes on Friday, elevating 20-year company veteran and manufacturing expert Brian Krzanich to the post of chief operating officer and raising his stature as a possible future CEO. Reuters

Alan Wake PC FAQ We recently sat down and drafted up the answers to our most commonly asked questions about the upcoming release of Alan Wake on PC. The FAQ's below will be updated as we get closer to the games release. Alan Wake forum

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Who thought Alan Wake on PC would be a good idea? I'm not sure what's a sillier idea, claiming to be atheist on one of the most pious countries in the world, or bringing a failure of a console game to the PC.
 
"Man faces five years for ?God does not exist? Facebook post "

Are you ****ing Kidding me, some religious Judge was pissed I take it.
 
On, the MegaUpload part, I think this was the government's backup plan if SOPA and PIPA failed. To start targeting the major file sharing servers and domains. To create distrust between them and the people. Unfortunately, this just creates more distrust between the government and the people, not that that didn't already exist anyway. And to boot, most of the government's "evidence" on MegaUpload seems to be a crock of BS and they weren't really breaking any laws to begin with.
 
The end of the internets seems near the way things go right now, that's what happen when the greed's take control over the world.

2012 might not be the end of the world but might be the end of the internet as we know it.

Internets Armageddon is near.
 
ramonsterns said:
Who thought Alan Wake on PC would be a good idea? I'm not sure what's a sillier idea, claiming to be atheist on one of the most pious countries in the world, or bringing a failure of a console game to the PC.

I've never played the game because I don't own a console, but I've had friends that played it tell me it's a good game. Could you elaborate on why you feel the game is a failure?
 
Why hasn't Techspot talked about ACTA? It is much much much worse than SOPA or PIPA. People, spread the news, stop ACTA.
 
"Man faces five years for ?God does not exist? Facebook post"

This doesn't make any sense. The man put up a post on facebook about what he believed, then was beaten by a dozen people, and then after has to serve a sentence of 5 years in jail! This is in no way shape or form ethical. Yeah, he shouldn't be saying those things (don't start accusing me of anything, I'm an Christian)
 
Good catch with that NYT article Matt.

ramonsterns said:
Who thought Alan Wake on PC would be a good idea? I'm not sure what's a sillier idea, claiming to be atheist on one of the most pious countries in the world, or bringing a failure of a console game to the PC.

It sold over a million and received good reviews, so I wouldn't exactly call Alan Wake a failure. Personally I found it pretty decent, but ya it wasn't anywhere near what it could have been if they just focused on the PC. Looks more like they are trying to mend some fences with the PC community after the fallout of a 360 exclusive.

jester376 said:
On, the MegaUpload part, I think this was the government's backup plan if SOPA and PIPA failed.

I'd say it's government just showing that they still support the rightsholders rather than a backup plan for a flawed legislation that wasn't fully supported by everyone to begin with.
 
Well, Filesonic Just pulled its own plug. can only download and upload your personal files.
 
Will show you our peaceful loving god exists! Lets beat him up! I was shocked until I noticed they weren't talking about America.
 
lawfer said:
ramonsterns said:
Who thought Alan Wake on PC would be a good idea? I'm not sure what's a sillier idea, claiming to be atheist on one of the most pious countries in the world, or bringing a failure of a console game to the PC.

I've never played the game because I don't own a console, but I've had friends that played it tell me it's a good game. Could you elaborate on why you feel the game is a failure?

Same reason why Duke Nukem Forever was a failure. So much time to think, so little accomplished.
 
Filesonic have stop sharing data..just upload and download personal files with password...
who is next ???
 
The shortage of scientific people in the us is real. At my white trash 2 year college, only 14% earn their associates degree let alone bachelors. Only 50% of us are even graduating high school. When I was 21, I had 4 bachelors degrees. What will these people do? In high school, we played tackle football in gym class without helmets and uniforms, and not wanting to got you labeled a sissy. I think schools push sports because the military wants recruits; a failed system $85 trillion in debt and costing the taxpayer $1 million a person per year to make minimum wage. Smarten up, america. Glad I never had any children.
 
The muslim based law in Iran says you can be actually put to death if you leave your religion. Here in the us we have the irony that religions are pro life. Always an extemist view.
 
ramonsterns said:
lawfer said:
ramonsterns said:
Who thought Alan Wake on PC would be a good idea? I'm not sure what's a sillier idea, claiming to be atheist on one of the most pious countries in the world, or bringing a failure of a console game to the PC.

I've never played the game because I don't own a console, but I've had friends that played it tell me it's a good game. Could you elaborate on why you feel the game is a failure?

Same reason why Duke Nukem Forever was a failure. So much time to think, so little accomplished.

From what I've (or haven't) read, I'd say your comment and those games have a lot in common.
 
@"Megaupload details raise significant concerns about what DOJ considers evidence of criminal behavior"

I think that brings up some very good points that I hadn't even thought of. It looks like the DoJ is just piling on charges that could look bad in the wrong light, but the opposite side is never take into account. Now I know for a fact pirated material gets uploaded onto sharing sites like Megaupload, but I really feel the responsibly to watch for pirated material should mostly fall on the copy write holder not the site it ends up on. They are not running a business dedicated to sharing copy write information illegally - they are running a file sharing website that is getting abused.

Also saw it pointed out on an article about how many very nice cars are owned between the lop 5 or 6 people in the company as evidence "they must be up to something shady". Since when has making lots of money and enjoying nice things be illegal?
 
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