Megaupload outed file-sharers to Feds months before Dotcom raid

Megaupload assisted a US prosecution of a smaller file-sharing service in 2010, 18 months before it itself was the target of a high-profile copyright-infringement lawsuit. The Kim Dotcom-fronted file-hosting website Megaupload turned over details of five of its users in response to a June 2010 warrant [PDF] against NinjaVideo …

[Spoonsinger]

Re :- "thought their cooperation with the Feds would buy them some favour".

Nah, German/New Zealanders are the future al-Qaeda.

To quote various Rising Sun, (err), quotes,

John Connor: Do you know what's true? When something sounds too good to be true, then it's not true.

or

Web Smith: If we only had the original disk, we could see what happened after that.

Jingo Asakuma: Exactly. You catch on fast, Lieutenant Smith.

Web Smith: Yeah, I do.

or

Bob Richmond: Hey! Hey, you! Quit loafing! Get the senator's car! What do you think we're doing?

Web Smith: No, you get the senator's car! Wrong guy, wrong fucking century! Penguin looking mother fucker!

(Last one for current University graduates - Really sorry it's this way, but that's life).

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Re :- "thought their cooperation with the Feds would buy them some favour".

Enquiring minds (well, mind) must know - are you The Man From Mars in disguise?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Re :- "thought their cooperation with the Feds would buy them some favour".

Once again...

This is what happens when you trust Obama' DOJ.

Hey! You F*cked Up! You Trusted us! You're Busted! Just like Manning! and Swartz!

[Tom 35]

trust Obama' DOJ

You think the other bunch are not just as bought as this bunch?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: trust Obama' DOJ

Tom 35 wrote:

You think the other bunch are not just as bought as this bunch?

So, that makes it O.K. with you, Tom?

[Spoonsinger]

Re: Re :- "thought their cooperation with the Feds would buy them some favour".

F**k, what's with all the Rising Sun quote hate. You know it's true.

[LarsG]

So Dotcom

Is really a Yellow Canary, who would have thought it?

[Anonymous Coward]

That the operators (not users) of NinjaVideo were successfully prosecuted seems like a precedent to me. What differentiates dotcom from these guys?

[Psyx]

What differentiates dotcom from these guys?

Better PR and more expensive lawyers.

[ShadowedOne]

Let's see, one was providing a legitimate file storage service (complete with safe harbour provisions), the other was using that service to distribute files they had no legal right to distribute.

[Fibbles]

This would be the Megavideo that was used en masse for streaming copyrighted material but deliberately only ever showed Youtube style amateur clips on its main page in order to present a legit image of itself? The Megavideo that you couldn't search directly because you'd likely stumble across all that infringing content? The Megavideo that paid third-party pirate sites through its reward scheme for driving traffic, even though they were clearly nothing but lists of links to specific infringing Megavideo files? The Megavideo that only allowed 72 minutes of free viewing before the user was required to buy a subscription and was therefore acting as a Netflix-like content streaming service? The Megavideo that could undercut legit streaming services because they paid no royalties on all that user-uploaded infringing content? That Megavideo?

Safe harbour provisions only apply if copyright infringement is incidental to your service, not the foundation of it. Dotcom's outfit hid behind these provisions. They encouraged users (read; pirate sites) to upload infringing material by rewarding them monetarily for popular files. All the while, turning a blind eye to whether material was infringing or not because they claimed the uploading user was responsible. They then took payments, in the form of viewing subscriptions, from other users funnelled to them by the pirate sites.

The US government massively overstepped the mark when they raided his NZ home but by no means is Dotcom the innocent victim he likes to paint himself as.

[Richard Wharram]

@Fibbles

Best. Post. Ever.

On this subject at least.

[Anonymous Coward]

Old news

Kim came out and said this near enough as soon as the latest case opened. I'm not sure why El Reg is on a vendetta against Kim Dotcom. He may well be a bit of a douch at times but he also has some good points.

As I said on another story (where my comment was removed, first time I've ever had a comment removed here on TheRegister), I really don't understand why El Reg is reporting such bias against Kim/Mega.

[NoneSuch]

Re: Old news

@ AC 14:24

If you actually read the article, it is a balanced overview giving KIM.DOT.COM's version of the story. The truth always lies between the versions supplied by both sides.

[Grave]

Re: Old news

are you for real? there is only one truth. it's not located between truth and lies. or are you saying if an innocent person (truth) is accused of murder (lie), the truth is somehow between???

[Lars]

Re: Old news

"the truth is somehow between?"

Forgive him, he is in politics.

[Steve Knox]

Re: Old news

are you for real? there is only one truth. it's not located between truth and lies.

except when truth is quantum.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_quark

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Old news

Apple produce good quality, easy to use hardware. Those with sense buy their products. (Truth)

Apple produce underpowered, expensive hardware. Only idiots buy their products. (Truth)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subjectivism

[sabroni]

Re: I'm not sure why El Reg is on a vendetta against Kim Dotcom

It's simple, here's the official register vendetta list:

Apple

Google

MS

Windows Users

Apple OS users

iPhone users

Android users

Linux Users

Freetards

Paytards

Sexy ladies

Kim Dotcom

They are all victims of the horrible register with it's slightly sarcastic tone. Sorry, when I say slightly sarcastic tone I mean EVIL VENDETTA.

[Captain DaFt]

@sabroni

You left out "and anything else that catches their attention."

[CmdrX3]

Do you expect anything better

With hacks like AO running rampant through it's pages telling half truths and outright lies. It's like Fox news with the Quote of the Day that all their commentators have to use during the day to get their point across.

[ACx]

Re: I'm not sure why El Reg is on a vendetta against Kim Dotcom

Wikileaks, Assange?

Yeah, the children at the Reg are still in charge.

[Grave]

Re: I'm not sure why El Reg is on a vendetta against Kim Dotcom

at least it's not the other uk it website (name of which i no longer remember - its been years since i've stopped reading it), the one with a moron writer with a bitter, hateful personal grudge against nvidia.

[nexsphil]

Re: I'm not sure why El Reg is on a vendetta against Kim Dotcom

El Reg is a propaganda outlet, unfortunately. Search for any story on Julian Assange, for instance, and soak up the idiotic US-style hyperbole.

[nexsphil]

Re: I'm not sure why El Reg is on a vendetta against Kim Dotcom

....or any article by Andrew Orlowski. Laugh out loud stuff.

[sabroni]

Re: all the comments

what a bunch of whining pussies. Came on here expecting your political views to be endorsed and got a little disappointed?

The register will take the piss out of anyone it likes. If you don't like that then please come into the comments section and moan like a bunch of entitled teenagers until the world changes to make you happy. If you could hold your breath while you wait that'd be super!

[mark l 2]

Maybe i am late to notice this but the new mega file hosting service is MEGA CONZ

Hmmmm...

[Vector]

Upvote for you for beating me to that point...

[Anonymous Coward]

I noticed it and posted about it the day it was mentioned on reg. Not gonna waste the effort to search though. It's funny how the DOJ calls it a Mega conspiracy, and Mega is nor Mega.con.z! :D

[Anonymous Coward]

"Now mega.co.nz!"

[Anonymous Coward]

Should be...

"'Why is ‪@KimDotCom‬ free while other file-sharing pioneers still rot in jail?,' impotently whined Anonymous..."

Fixed.

[Anonymous Coward]

a short drop...

...and a sudden stop.

-Lt Norrington

[The FunkeyGibbon]

No honour among thieves...

Who knew?

[Anonymous Coward]

www.mega.co.nz

= mega.cons

Coincidence?

[AJames]

" First they came for the communists,

and I didn't speak out because I was not a communist.

Then they came for the socialists,

and I didn't speak out because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,

and I didn't speak out because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for me,

and there was no one left to speak for me."

-Martin Niemöller (c.1946)

[sabroni]

Fucking hell, Taxi's eh!

[Christian Berger]

I'm sorry, but you shouldn't be surprised

Kimble is known for being a fairly unethical person. There's a text file out there with his combined Usenet postings, if you want to form your own opinion.

[Andrew Norton]

Funny John, the story's spent the weekend (and the previous week) doing the rounds.

What you seem to have missed is that the files the DoJ used to get the warrants the NZ anti-terror squad used for the raid, was based on files not being taken down that CARPATHIA had been told to not touch, because of a warrant for the Ninjavideo case. Now, the DoJ had responded saying 'we never told MU not to delete it, we only talked to Carp, so when MU didn't download the files and were aware of it, it wasn't us that told them. Completely missing that carp told MU about the service of court orders they got from the DOJ.

So, on one hand, had MU deleted the files, they would have been prosecuted for tampering in an investigation and destruction of evidence. When they didn't touch them, they got this. DoJ wanted to have it both ways. It's really not that hard to grasp, especially as the DoJ's filings over the past week have basically confirmed the story.

[W.O.Frobozz]

What?

Kimble basically played everyone for saps? Say it ain't so. Next you'll tell me YIHAT wasn't real either, and that Kimble really wasn't a "famous hacker back in the 90's."

(For the clueless, plz truck on over to attrition.org for some of Kimble aka Lord Kimble of the Kimpire aka "dot com's" history.)

[Winkypop]

There can only ever be one outcome

Lawyers - Barristers - Solicitors, et al, make more money.

[Anonymous Coward]

Unscrupulous

Mega Load is unscrupulous and headed for prison.

[xpusostomos]

So Dotcom complied with search warrants. Like, did he have any choice? I don't think so.