Mega Video take down bad no matter how it ends
By: Chris Edgin
The more I think of the Megavideo take down, the more it bothers me, and one simple ground..no due process was granted to them at all and at this point I doubt there will even be a trial. The arrested people will likely be given fines as an easy way out of jail, all the hardware will remain in government custody, and never will the process used by law enforcement be subjected to judicial review.
Judge, jury, sentencing, all done ahead of time. The government decided they were guilty of a crime with no need to actually prove a crime took place.
Worse, even if there is a trial, and they win, it will take years on untangling red tape to get their hardware back IF they can get their hardware back (since the government can auction it off w/o a verdict rendered, even if they drop charges). The government also doesn’t have to pay restitution if it loses, they just keep what they seized.
In the end government gets what it wants..the site shutdown, even if they win their case, all because their fate was pre-determined and due process was omitted.
Perhaps the Fed wants to avoid having to prove the financial damage claims that are so often asserted when it comes to piracy. Given how prevalent piracy is now, one would think every software maker and media producer would be dead broke by now. Yet somehow NONE of them are listing piracy as a limiting factor on their quarterly earnings reports, profits are way up there DESPITE piracy.
So when, I hear of Megavideo causing $500 billion in damages, I want someone to actually PROVE that in a court of law.
To me that’s almost like saying I am damaging the sales by buying a used copy of a CD as opposed to a new one thus the record company can collect damages from me since that act denied them a sale of a new copy. The Feds must hate resale shops then, all that trading of used media, denying all those new sales and other people besides the publishers making money on the sale.
What next, will they raid my garage sales because I am selling a used DVD that has had 4 different owners, and I am not sending the $1 I made to the film studio that made the film?
They must really HATE public libraries, all these people getting to read, watch and listen to media w/o paying a dime for it. Those nasty pirates…imagine the financial damages that can be levied against a library? So many new sales denied due to all that ’sharing’.
These damages..all made up is what they are, its just a means of expanding their market share using the legal system as their tool. Why make and sell BETTER products when you can punish potential customers for not buying your mediocre to low-quality offerings. That way you keep production costs down as well as maintain your captive market.