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US Government: There's Child Porn On the Megaupload Servers Judge!
Fluffeh writes "In the ongoing Megaupload saga, Carpathia, the company that hosted Megaupload, is in a tough pickle. The EFF wants the data to remain on the servers so that users can get legitimate data back, the MPAA doesn't want the servers back, because it will lead to piracy. Megaupload wants to buy the servers to get all the data, but isn't allowed to as that would have the servers leaving the court's jurisdiction. The U.S .Government won't pay Carpathia for the time that the servers are sitting idle and has a new song in its repertoire by announcing yesterday that the servers 'may contain child pornography,' which would render them 'contraband' and limit Carpathia's options for dealing with them."
Why won't someone think of the children!?
"If anyone needs me, I'm in the angry dome."
There's Communist propaganda on them there servers, or in the 1600's there be witch craft on em!
Isn't collective punishment a crime against humanity? Might as well shut down the entire internet because there is CP on there. Might as well shut off the phone system because pedos use it. Might as well place everyone in the country under house arrest because pedos.
Christ, get me out of this shithole banana republic.
Jesus fucking christ the US government and its excuse for a "justice" system is evil. Evil fucking pieces of shit.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
"May contain" is insufficient. If the government has confiscated these servers, then they have the ability to determine for certain whether the servers do, in fact, contain child pornography. If we're playing the wild conjecture game, then servers may also contain the date of the Messiah's return; or the true location of Amelia Earhart; or the cure for cancer; or the recipe for the best chicken pot pie ever. Let's not limit ourselves to a ham-handed grope for an excuse by law enforcement. To law enforcement: If there is child porn on the servers, copy the files to an evidence drive, delete the originals, then allow access to the legally permissible files. Genius. If a drug operation is detected at 123 Main Street, you get to secure that house, not the entire county.
The US government wouldn't try to use communism as a boogyman. Terrorist! Get with the times!
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
This us an example of why I think cloud computing and in particular cloud storage is risky. At any time some government somewhere may decide to seize the servers for some reason that has nothing to do with you. Then where's your data?
Or they may go out of business-- not just the people you thought you were dealing with but possibly subs in some unknown country.
Thank god we live in a world where suspicion alone does not constitute a crime
Well....I guess we used to. I guess it all goes out the window when it comes to "piracy".
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
BTW, Bill Gates has tons of child porn on his computers and that is a fact, in fact most Republicans host and profit from child porn and I can proof it. They all own shares in companies that index the internet and when you do that, you are going to index child porn sooner or later. With the introduction of image search and the thumbnailing of said images on servers owned by the search engine companies such as Bing, these companies have child porn and serve the images to the world. Since these companies run their search engine for profit, they profit from child porn and so does anyone who has shares in them.
By the same token, every ISP transmits child porn and every airline and postal company out there traffics in it too. Just recently a man in Hollland was arrested on a flight with childporn, since KLM did not refund his ticket, they profitted from the rape of children.
Disgusting ain't it?
Funny, that this kind of logic is never used in the US to hold gun companies responsible for gun crime. Maybe it is a clear message, pedo's just got to up their campaign donations.
Did they try the old terrorist spiel yet? Can't be far behind.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
How about the whole attitude of the governments in developed countries "to prevent" crime?
It started with the recognition of the right of the shitty Middle Eastern state called "israel" to "preventive" strikes in the 70s, then the excuse to "prevent" something is used universally and pervasively through all spheres of government/private citizen interaction.
Stupid speed limits (55mph) on highways, stupid laws on school buses, stupid TSA, the hunt for any Muslim who dares to estalblish Shariah in his own land by hand.
If you, westerners, were worth a dime of your own beliefs you would fought tooth and nail to incorporate the following article in your man-made "constitutions":
- government cannot limit freedom of individuals under a pretext to prevent crime
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
We're watching Carpathia being placed in this chokehold to send a message here to other data centers: This could be you.
So there "might" be CP on the Megaupload servers. OK, hard to disprove an allegation like that, especially because some of the material on the servers is likely to be encrypted. But there "might" also be CP on one or more of NASA's servers, or on LoC or CIA servers. Also hard to disprove. And there is an even greater likelihood that CP exists on servers belonging to the FBI or TSA.
Clearly, all servers connected to the internet should be impounded, until they can be proven free of CP.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
... were the data on the Megaupload servers being stored unencrypted?
If I were offering a service like Megaupload, I'd encrypt all the data, give the uploader the key, and then forget what it was. I'd build a decrypter into the client-side download engine, so anyone downloading the files can type in the key (into their browser) so they get the original plaintext.
That way the hosting service has plausible deniability, and can say something like "We're offering a secure service to our users -- we encrypt your data to give you the assurance that we, ourselves, aren't snooping on you." They're still subject to DMCA takedowns, if someone comes to them with a URL and key, but not subject to fishing expeditions like this one ("show me everything on your servers, hey look kiddie porn").
All the serious kiddie porn folks are probably off on Freenet anyway...
Why can't users' have the fast track option where they can elect have their data verified by the FBI, by giving the Feds specific legal permission to investigate without the need for a warrant. FBI checks their account for CP and Copyright Infringement. If their account is clean, their data is given back, and then purged from Megaupload as it is no longer evidence as it has been confirmed that suspicions were false for this particular user.
If the account has CP or infringing materials found, then the user has CHOSEN to incriminate themselves and can be among the first to have legal action taken against them (which they deserve for wasting FBI/DOJ time) and does not exclude action against MU themselves.
The FBI can put whatever terms they want in the optional agreement, including providing encryption keys, passwords, etc. but will also be balanced with special indemnity that the information recovered is to remain confidential and destroyed like an NDA if no illegal materials are found. Account holders don't have to give up their passwords/keys, they can wait out the full legal process and see what happens like anyone else if they want to.
All the legit users will probably come forward and will clear the way to concentrate on the remaining accounts, potentially freeing up some servers by consolidating all the remaining accounts' data together.
This is a great full-proof way of destroying any information based business: claim there is a possibility they got child porn.
YouTube could have child porn: Let's take down YouTube!
Facebook profiles could have child porn! Lets take down Facebook!
Apple engineers could keep a stock of child porn on their secret labs: Let's raid the Apple headquarters and confiscate all their equipment!
Any computer could be used to store and view child porn! We must confiscate ALL computers!
The Internet could be used to send child porn! We must turn off the Internet, go back to a time where television and newspapers rule the world, to protect us from child porn.
Really, who needs SOPA PIPA ACTA when you can just claim "child porn" and get a free pass to do whatever the hell you want to do.
I was talking to a relative who was a federal agent from the mid 70s through the mid 90s and saw the rise of the Department of Justice to the behemoth it is today (including the DoJ take over of the FBI from top down). His perspective comes from being a Treasury special agent and he said that the DoJ has been like this for a few decades now. It's just that ever since they began to rapidly expand, they've gotten a bigger mandate and set of resources to throw their weight around. In general, they've been a total rat's nest of corruption for several decades now in a way that makes most of the other departments look like paragons of virtue.
The fact is that if you look at some of the absolutely wicked shit that comes out of them in terms of things they want to do, it is stuff that leaves you thinking "do these people literally conspire daily against the constitution?" The DoD and CIA had their problems with rendition and torture, but the DoJ takes it to a level that goes well beyond anything that has come to light about what those two actually want to do (rather than are compelled by Congress or the President). The DoJ frequently writes briefs and memos that go the other way around, letting or justifying Congress or the President do wicked shit.
If elections could change anything, they'd have been outlawed ages ago. My guess is that people simply voted for the lesser evil. Which he probably even was, compared to the alternative of corpse/dud bombshell combo.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
The us govt claims there might be child pr0n on the Megaupload servers. I remember when they had proven beyond any doubt that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction so excuse me if I'm inclined to doubt their judgement.
The federal government's computers may contain child porn. We should seize all of them now!!
the growth in cynicism and rebellion has not been without cause
And I'm highly allergic to those nuts. But you think anyone cares?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Maybe we can shut down facebook to investigate? Or, when you reach a certain size, you're immune to prosecution?
Actually, yes. That is precisely the case.
You should celebrate our truly objective system. Everyone knows exactly how much influence they have on government. You just tally the numbers present in the corners of your green "influence papers".
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Right, because the previous administration was so adamant about preserving civil rights...
Back under your bridge, troll.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Megaupload's model was not like Dropbox: it was not a storage service but an advertisement/subscription sponsored distribution service. (And it had deliberate incentives to encourage the distribution of copyrighted content and effectively ignore the takedown obligations required by the DMCA...)
Thus the files can't be encrypted binary blobs, because the point was that anyone with a URL should be able to fetch the file, so encryption wouldn't help on the storage.
Test your net with Netalyzr
Some folks just complain about spelling and grammar to be pedantic. In this case, however...
Including or omitting punctuation is really important. The headline is, "US Government: There's Child Porn On the Megaupload Servers Judge!" Think the missing comma changes the meaning?
I only post comments when someone on the internet is wrong.
In North America nobody is safe from the hand of the god damned moral police. People are fucked up, live with it. If they want to do something about child pornography go find the people that are making that shit. It is not a valid excuse to attack file hosting companies with, they didn't make the crap and they don't endorse it. There is a part of me that would love to see the world burn because I would rest assured that the idiots who propagate this kind of crap will be burning a bit faster than me.
This is completely unrelated to the issue at hand... however it is relevant to the parent:
A lot of people who commit crimes against children *are* people that have other mental/social issues. No, having such deficiencies doesn't make one an abuser, but it certainly doesn't disqualify somebody from being one either.
Two recent cases in Canada:
a) Randall Hopley (abducted a child)
b) Allan Schoenborn (murdered his three children)
They'd basically qualify as the types of socially-inept persons mentioned.
While some people are good at masking it, one must be mentally ill in some fashion to commit such harm against a child. Often such illness manifests itself as awkwardness in other parts of life.
Again, being socially inept (or mentally unsound) does not in any way make one an abuser, but at the same time it hardly excludes one from being such a person any more than does a businessman in a suit+tie.
may contain child pornography
May? MAY?!?
Yeah, and I may be a terrorist, with 5 nukes in my house, ready to blow the fuck out of the nearest airport.
I may be able to push a button on my wall and cause my house to transform into a missle launcher and blow the local precinct sky high.
I may have a legion of ninjas that are ready to murder every government official when i click my heels 3 times.
But I've never been arrested for these things. Why? Because may shouldn't be good enough for the fucking law.
Good grief. I don't care one way or another about Megaupload, but holy shit has our legal system gone to fucking hell.
What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
Microsoft's Bing probably has it too, in droves. In fact, any decent crawler may have it.Why sholdn't they? You don't realize until it is too late I guess.
I "may" have a nuclear bomb in my basement. I "may" be able to fly by flapping my arms really fast.
May is such a loaded term, and then combined with the magic boogie-man of "child porn", why, that's a justification for just about *anything*.
And while we're on this subject, why don't we go after the RIAA for Child Porn? I mean, it seems like a pretty fair deal, we have plenty of proof:
Ringo Starr: "You're 16, you're beautiful and you're mine" ...and others. Hell, half of the RIAA's catalog is about jailbait. I think the FBI needs to investigate.
Gary Puckett: "Young Girl, get out of my mind"
Sting: "Don't stand so close to me"
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
Nope, you couldn't. Because behind the scenes Megaupload used content deduplication: multiple users who uploaded the same content would get different URLs, but it was stored in a common store.
Not only was this needed for efficiency, it was also needed to implement Megaupload's fake-takedown system: it would allow a content provider to take down single URLs pointing to a file, but the file itself never went away and any OTHER URL pointing to that file would still work.
Erm -- the behaviour would be identical if deduplication were not used. Efficiency is the only reason it was necessary. And I think your use of the phrase "fake-takedown system" implies a value judgement that isn't entirely justified.
Child Porn is indeed one of the root passwords to the U.S. constitution, along with "terrorist". We will soon have "intellectual piracy" on the list.
But invoke any one and apparently the rule of law becomes the wrong kind of blind.
"We're protecting the people from porn" is the same excuse the Chinese government uses for its censorship of the Internet.