Sunday, January 29, 2012

A conundrum.

This Google, for "self-referential paradox."

Why this? Something referring to itself, etc.?

Well --- I figured I would try to download the Megaupload indictment, and I figured a logical place to start was

http://www.megaupload.com/

It seemed a sensible presumption - go to find info on Megaupload, at Megaupload.

Besides, I had heaed sometime last year that you could go there to download almost anything, (copyright not a consideration).

Boy. Was I surprised. Try it.

This Wikipedia page, and here - does that last item look familiar if you tried the above link?


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Holder and crew are a bunch of kill-joys. Spoil-sports. You would presume that instead of such an ugly three-stooge image, they'd have left a self-congratulatory posting of their hoopla-doopla-super-spiffy grand jury indictment for the takedown.

All 72 pages. Kim Dotcom gets no respect. Just that image.

For those interested, Google "Megaupload" or "Kim Dotcom" and read. For most people the Wikipedia page link above should be enough.

For those REALLY interested, the indictment as a pdf can be downloaded here. A New Zeland website. Go figure. Doubtlessly there are other copies posted online. That's the one from the country where Kim Dotcom lived and was arrested. There's sense to the New Zelanders deciding to post the official US paperwork saying why he was arrested. They seem sensible, in New Zeland.

Curiously, DOJ has info on the takedown, here and here, but I did not find any easy linking to the actual text of the indictment. They told me about something I'd rather read for myself. Same text, I think, in each of the DOJ press releases, which they kindly offer me, via two (2) separate URL's. Thoughtful, yes/no? My Government, knowing best. Via need to know thinking.

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If you google around, you can see how other file sharing sites reacted. Can you say, "Chilling Effect."

With the SOPA and PIPA protest happening, this seems to be DOJ's next-day answer. Hollywood rules. Shouldn't you feel comfortable knowing that?

____________UPDATE_____________
Well, wasn't I dumb. Of course, besides the DOJ, the FBI was a part of the bust. Go to their website, obviously, for additional info. I should have thought of that earlier.

This Google. One hit, (on a generic google, which is hard to achieve - try doing it if you don't think getting a single hit is tricky).



 This item. Deja vu? All over again? Everything I need to know?

___________FURTHER UPDATE___________
Another link. Without SOPA. Without PIPA. Where there's a will, there's a way. And without copyright trolling all over little guys.

As a representative example of copyright troll mischief of the worst kind, beating up on a public interest - public commentary blog-website, Pam Spaulding and her Pam's House Blend site suffred a troll attack. She got trampled on - shook down - by Righthaven, see, e.g., Spaulding's posts, here and here. Instead of that, it is good law enforcement when the FBI and DOJ decide to do their job and take down a major, obnoxious, highly-profitable offender. People such as Spaulding, or the poor defendant in Capitol v. Thomas, should be left alone, to sleep restful nights, without being stepped on by a heavy corporate or a troll boot. Obama/Holder largely showed that SOPA and PIPA are unneeded, and that pressure from a government using existing weaponry, (including freezing assets), against a high-profit pirate haven can chill others in the same line of profit seeking, with the little guy bloggers not being made into the shake-down target of grossly unequal litigational power, nastily exercised.