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MegaUpload Dares RIAA To Sue Them
Dangerous_Minds writes "Yesterday, there were reports that the RIAA and MPAA were working with Mastercard to cut off payments to so-called 'rogue-websites' like MegaUpload. Today, a spokesperson from MegaUpload issued a response to the RIAA on ZeroPaid. Bonnie Lam of MegaUpload said, 'the vast majority of our revenue is coming from advertising.' She also said, 'Megaupload is a legitimate business operating within the boundaries of the law. In five years of operation we have not been sued by a single content owner. If the RIAA or MPAA would have legal grounds they would have taken us to court by now. We suggest that they attack us within the legal system and stop labeling us until they have something to show.'"
There are millions of people who would sign up for that sort of deal.
I always wondered why they(and Rapidshare and other clones) haven't been sued into oblivion yet. Not that I am rooting against them, but if Napster was found guilty all those years ago...
Have you seen most European jails? They aren't bad at all. Usually after a while you get a TV and maybe a game console in your room (and lots of other things if you want to order them), theres lots of activity every day, you can go on weekend holidays and the food is even better than what is offered to school kids. Lots of people don't like their tax money is used like that, but that's the way it is - being in jail in most of Europe is like taking a relaxing holiday.
I feel like once they did this for WikiLeaks, the floodgates opened and now Mastercard is going to be under pressure to cancel accounts left and right. Heck, why isn't Mastercard closing the accounts for the Ku Klux Klan? How come you can still donate using Mastercard?
Slashdot needs a new tag for stories like this?
I nominate "bitchslap".
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Umm, MC isn't halting payments - at least not yet according to the umm articles linked. Mega was mentioned as one of the services in particular that the *IAA would want this halted with - supposedly since I haven't found them mentioned in my searches. Mega is simply stating that IF this were done it a) wouldn't impact them overly much and b) if they are doing something illegal why not come after them directly?
Frankly it's a disturbing prospect that someone could knock down a company by simply trying to strangle funding in this manner - we shoudl all be concerned. I also wonder if Mega has considered that they might also go after the advertisers payments in some way also.
I don't see good coming of this at all IF indeed the *IAAs have found a way to twist the arms of funding supplies like this.
Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org
Another idea - maybe we shouldn't criminalize such a high percentage of our population? Look at the prison statistics. A majority of our prisoners are convicted of minor drug related offenses. Almost all of them were originally convicted of such crimes, then sent to prison where they LEARNED to be "institutinalized" low-lifes. Prison is nothing but a training ground for criminals. Decriminalize drugs, and most of those criminals will never make it to prison. Decriminalize other "victimless crimes" such as prostitution, and that will remove another large segment of our prison population. Our laws are just FUBAR'd, that's all there is to it.
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