Abhiroop Basu

Why the feds smashed Megaupload

The closing of MegaUpload is a good example of why SOPA and PIPA are not required. This was a foreign company, and using the courts and existing legal tools, the enforcement agencies were able to coordinate a successful multi-jurisdictional takedown.

On a more general note, it’s ludicrous that MU was taken down in the first place. The US DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyrights Act, the legislation under which they will be prosecuted) provides “safe harbour” provisions, stating that if a website does not know of infringing content on its website then they cannot be prosecuted. In this case there may have some knowledge of infringing content, but overall MU is like Bittorent, merely a platform. 

This takedown is akin to Google being taken down for hosting links, or basically any hosting provider (Blogger, WordPress, etc.). In fact, the hosting service of virtually every website in existence could in theory be taken down.