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Under US Pressure, PayPal Stops Working With Mega
New submitter seoras sends news that PayPal is now refusing to handle payments for Mega, Kim Dotcom's cloud storage service. A report (PDF) issued in September of last year claimed Mega and other "cyberlocker" sites made a great deal of illicit money off piracy. Mega disputes this, of course, and says the report caused U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy to pressure credit card companies to stop working with Mega. Those companies then pressured PayPal to stop as well. The hosting company claims, "MEGA provided extensive statistics and other evidence showing that MEGA’s business is legitimate and legally compliant. After discussions that appeared to satisfy PayPal’s queries, MEGA authorised PayPal to share that material with Visa and MasterCard. Eventually PayPal made a non-negotiable decision to immediately terminate services to MEGA."
MEGA should start to use bitcoin, it could use a bit of fresh publicity.
that the banks are not to big to fail, and should have been allowed to. There is no reason what so ever that any government should get involved in peoples personal financial decisions. while kim dotcom might not be the best person in the world, there is no reason for this continued harassment
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
What pressure? Mega is doing nothing wrong, by PayPal's admission.
Their excuse is "Well, they use encryption." What, and Paypal *doesn't* use encryption? If it didn't, that would be one hell of a reason to drop PayPal immediately.
Fuck off with that shit. Admit it, your CEOs were paid off or otherwise coerced by certain government agencies, and has absolutely nothing to do with law or morals.
This type of activity is quickly becoming a judicial system of sorts. If you do not play by our rules we will destroy you.
The "because piracy" claim is just a facade, Mega fully encrypts everything and the US doesn't like that.
In light of what has been revealed about the NSA, it is always very suspicious to me when a seemingly powerful person or company caves in to pressure so easily. Powerful people & companies have much to lose and public images to protect, so blackmail would probably be a very effective tactic to use against them.
Our own government makes a mockery of the justice system it was sworn to uphold and yet nothing is ever done. For example the IRS claims to have lost thousands of emails due to server crashes and everyone knows it's bullshit, but still no one is prosecuted or punished in any meaningful way. Judges suddenly make rulings completely contrary to their previous positions. Every US company is so eager to climb into bed with the government.
Fuck it, call me paranoid. I think you've got to be willfully blind not to be somewhat paranoid these days.
i havent used them in probably 6 years now. I was selling diecast cars and someones order got held up at the border (canadian) so it arrived late. he put in a complain with paypal who took my money and added fees. once the die cast car arrived and he submitted the note to get it fixed on my side they did, but they still wanted their fees. and they would not cancel them eventhough I had done nothing wrong
so today I still "owe" paypal about 10-15 bucks, that they will never get out of me. they are a horrible company
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
why do banks get to pick and choose who to do business with?
Well first of all, they shouldn't be required to do business with someone who repeatedly commits fraud...
However what is happening here is not the choice of the business. It's the government saying "we can make life very unpleasant for you in terms of audits etc. unless you cease doing business with this list of people". The government has been going after many adult businesses in the same way for a while now, google Operation Chokepoint
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The feds have been putting pressure on banks to stop taking accounts for businesses they do not approve of. So far, they've gone after accounts of the porn industry and gun stores. I fully expect them to target tobacco stores in the near future. They do this by suggesting to the bank that they would find it necessary to conduct thorough and repeated audits if the banks work with "less than desirable" businesses.
-- Will program for bandwidth
It is ever so slightly possible, that Paypal is sounding the alarm, here. Here's the key phrase...
"...but PayPal has advised that MEGA's 'unique encryption model' presents an insurmountable difficulty,"
It looks like Paypal fought to keep MEGA as a customer. But "somebody" put the screws to them, and forced them to break contract with MEGA.
That's no small thing. Corporate contracts are a bit more "customer friendly", and simply dumping a corporate customer isn't quite as easy as it is to dump people like you and me. MEGA could take Paypal to court with a valid argument over breaking that contract.
What are they going to say? What would be their excuse? "We don't like encryption."??? No judge would buy that.
Based on what we're seeing, Paypal's previous history aside, it sounds rather like Paypal got served a National Security Letter telling them to dump MEGA.
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