OK, Had a premium Megaupload account and now with Megaupload being closed down, whats going to happen to my account? Any chance of claiming a refund? As i paid for lifetime membership :( Anyway, so life after Megaupload? What is everyone jumping onto now? Or do we all have to wait and see what happens???
What's going to happen to your account? What do you think is going to happen when you pay money to subscribe to be a participant in a criminal enterprise? No offense, but I personally never could understand why people would even purchase accounts with MU and the likes, as they're all illegal activity with a sword of Damocles hanging over them. Well, the hair just snapped, and MU got skewered by the law. Note, this was not just for copyright infringement, but for much broader scoped and serious charges of conspiracy and racketeering. This was similar to the type of criminal prosecution that had put John Gotti (ie the Godfather, THAT John Gotti) away for life. So, will you be sending emails to MU or the feds asking for your money back? I doubt it. If it were me, I would forget it. The money's gone and it'll be lucky if that's the worst that happened to you. I would think that most smart people would probably be deleting anything that tied them in with MU and had dumped their hard drives more than a week ago. This sort of question reminds me of the joke where a bank robber goes to the police to file a complaint because the bank teller was rude to him during the robbery, LOL...
hcd888 forget it.. you wont get your money back. What happen if Fed go after MU member? haha how come you dont think of that in mind.
On the other hand, if you're a legitimate and legal file user that stored personal data on MU, then you too, while in the moral right, nonetheless may still be out of luck:
As I understand it (from that article) files will be subject to deletion beginning 02 February; meaning that the server farms may begin to delete some, all, or (if they so choose), none of the files.
^ With that being said, Megaupload is not 100% gone? Cause if its gone for good, they they would have deleted the files long time.. right?
Unless you were making money off of MU, I wouldn't be too worried. They could go after users like him, but he's pretty low on the totem pole and not worth the effort.
That's exactly the thing, there were probably hundreds of people making big bucks off of MU by uploading prime media content. If I were the DOJ, I would certainly include a few of those guys just to send a message. And BTW Jelly, who is that hot new av you got? I'm shorting out my key board from drooling, LOL...
It would be crazy if DOJ goes after all its registered users. I saw a youtube video ... some guy ranting on and on about DOJ going after everyone that has ever used megaupload (through ip). And charges USD150k or 160k per infringement content.
There are thousands of people around the world used megaupload ... How can the DOJ go after those user and those user paid for the services they used....I wonder why the DOJ waited till now to shutdown the megaupload and not other websites too
Realistically, the DOJ can only go after US citizens or crimes committed on US soil. Further, it has limitations as to its resources, so in essence, it must pick and choose which case would give it the best and most effective returns. Going after the biggest and best example of piracy violation did just that; other US companies using the same "business" model had taken the hint and voluntarily shut down. Further, if they wanted to send an even bigger message, they should eventually go after those that were willing and knowing participants who had earned a large stream of cash rewards on MU. These were the guys or gals that purposely uploaded thousands of copyrighted films or songs to MU and then continually provided an ongoing supply of updated links to forums or sites, all in an effort to maximize their illicit income from this activity. This makes them an undeniable and integral part of the criminal enterprise, as MU would otherwise not be as attractive as a piracy service without them. These transactions of course, would be electronically recorded by MU and if they'd ever gave someone money, there would be the obvious money trail. That's why I said earlier, that there are those who should be throwing their hard drives into the river, and in fact, be relocating as soon as possible. The best analogy would be to think of a drug kingpin, who relies on individual street dealers to bring in business, but never personally selling drugs. MU's business model had been presented as one of malign ignorance; that is, it didn't know that its service was actually being used for copyright piracy by its users. But, in fact the DOJ has proven that it not only knew, but its intent had always been to do what everyone on the internet already is aware of, that MU was the best place for pirated material and it did so with a common knowledge wink and nod. What I think will eventually come from all this is, that after the MU owners case is finalized, the DOJ will announce cases against select individual participants that profited immensely from their active collusion with MU. Again, these were the media suppliers to MU that made it a big and attractive center for copyrighted content. Another thing that I see may be utilized by the DOJ, is the penalty idea of civil forfeiture. The DOJ can go after personal property used in the racketeering enterprise. Ever see the cars, boats, and houses sold by the federal government after they're taken from drug gangs? Well, we may have to get ready for the sale of the property taken from individuals that were a part of this piracy conspiracy and racketeering enterprise. It would not be popular, but it would be perfectly legal for the DOJ to do this.
