Umm... that's why they are going to trial. You do realize that the US government wouldn't actually go to trial if there isn't some kind of proof right? Because you can't just make up evidence. That's now really how the US justice system works because if the US did make up evidence, Megaupload's own lawyers would tear the prosecution to shreds
You don't accept the documents from the US government as proof, but that's why there's a lawsuit and a court system where the jurors decide the verdict. Keep in mind tht the US counts have decided against the US government before...
Also I'm sorry Ole but have you lived under a rock? Megaupload has been a hub of pirated content for years. Why do you suppose pirated sites like videostic and projectfreetv hosts pirated tv shows on Megavideo? Lets not forget about the massive, yes massive, pirate community of megaupload forum. I'm not making that up, here's their site (which is closed because of MU but here's proof anyway):
http://www.megauploadforum.net/
Megaupload forums specifically uses megaupload to share pirated games, movies, and programs. Honestly, just about any program you can find on megaupload if you do the right search and if you belong to the right community. Megaupload has hosted pirated content for years and they didn't do much about it to be very honest. You all need to
stop assuming things.
I do realize that the US government will easily go to trial with made up evidence. Actually, the US has often used made up evidence in lots of situations.
And if you belong to the right communities there are tons of pirated and other illegal material on every filesharing site in the world, so better ban them all.
I have no doubt that megaupload in theory was closed righfully, but I am againt one country trying to police the world, and therefor against the closure of megaupload.
I'm not a pro-pirate guy, but then again, the people who are trying to earn money should actually make it easy for us consumers. Take games, devs should make a proper demo of games, like the "old days". I'm just not buying a game without having a proper test. If a demo isn't released, I either download it, or don't buy it. If I DL it, and like it, I buy it. I once read about a game developer who was going to release games in Russia. Every other company was against it, because there are so much piracy there. What this game dev. did was looking at the pirated games, and tried to understand what the pirates did with the games, and then, they did the same in the future games. Now, Russia is the 2nd biggest market for them.
There will always be people who steal, but many pirated games are easier to play for many reasons. Like UbiSoft that used a DRM that needed internet connection. You couldn't even play single player without being connected. The pirated version works without problems. In these cases it's simple. I DL it. I shouldn't be punished for being legal. The Call of Duty series is the same, I DL it to play single player, to get finished with the story. MW2 wasn't worth it because of the lack of dedicated servers, MW3... well, that was MW1.3.
On the other hand, I would never have bought games like 18 wheels of steele, Mirrors Edge or even iRacing if I hadn't tried a pirate version first.
On the other hand, the Call of Duty series really got to many people with giving out, not one, but two really good demos. I know many that bought the game because of the demo, then went on to buy the exp. pack, then CoD 2 and lastly MW.
Another problem is with music, when you get better quality by illegal download, than on legal streaming. It's better to download. But then again, in the nordic countries I know Spotify is a big thing. I pay 17USD each month, and can listen to as much music as I want. Can even buy music there. I don't have to download anything illegal anymore. But... More and more labels are pulling out, because they don't earn enough. And that is the big problem today. In the music industry, the labels earn shitloads of money of a CD, if that medium is gone, they just don't earn as much money. It's not the artists who loose much money, they earn most on concerts anyway. I really do think this is the way to go in the future. And it looks like there are good movie-stream-programs coming up in the future, which will make pirating of music and videos much less needed.
Games is a different matter though, I think the industry has to go away from the idea of puking out as much games as possible, and instead focus on real quality games. But I guess this is a long shot, money rules.
Long, kinda OT there, just to get to my point. Mostly it's the big firms who has a lot of money, earns a lot of money, and want more money and power, that's trying to force this down on us. Laws should be made by people, for people, not by companies for the benefit of the same companies.
Laws should apply in the country it is in. Not in the world.
Sorry to hear that you have lived in one or more police states. However, that doesn't mean that I think it's OK that they are trying to pass laws that means I'm getting monitored. I'm not giving away my freedom. I really think it's too much monitoring of what we are doing already. If it's going to be more, and that is to benefit a tiny part of the companies and countries in the world. Just because they want more money and power. Well, be my guest. I'm not wanting to live in that world.
