Megaupload Judge To Issue Order On Return Of User Data “Shortly” A United States District Judge indicated in a hearing today that a little more time is needed to consider the fate of data uploaded by a Megaupload user and lost when the file-hosting company was closed without warning by U.S. authorities.
The user's case is being championed by the EFF who heard today that an order would be issued "shortly". Additionally, the judge said he would schedule a hearing to consider Megaupload's motion to dismiss. It’s been almost six months since Megaupload’s servers were raided and seized by U.S. authorities, a long time if you have valuable data stored on the companies now-frozen infrastructure. Top Artists Line Up for Kim Dotcom’s Megabox. Kim Dotcom is currently involved in a high-profile criminal prosecution in the U.S., but that isn't stopping him from preparing the launch of a revolutionary new music service.
With Megabox, Dotcom aims to make piracy an issue of the past by introducing free music for all. Dotcom told TorrentFreak that some of the world's top artists have already signed up for the launch, and more are expected to follow. Megabox first appeared in the news late last year, following the release of the “Mega Song” promo. The song featured top artists including P Diddy, Will.i.am, Alicia Keys, Snoop Dogg and Kanye West, endorsing the now-defunct Megaupload.
At the time, Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom explained that he had plans to put the “dinosaur record labels” out of business with the release of Megabox. A month later, however, the Megabox domain was seized as part of the criminal case against Dotcom and other members of the so-called “Mega Conspiracy”. Megabox The basic idea behind Megabox is simple.
MPAA Using Megaupload Case as Backdoor SOPA, Court Hears. Political activist group Demand Progress has filed a brief in the Megaupload case, urging the court to disregard the MPAA's concerns over the return of data to former Megaupload users.
The group argues that Hollywood lobbyists are out to make it impossible for Megaupload users to access their property, effectively using the court case as a backdoor SOPA. Demand Progress is joining the Megaupload case as a non-party. The group has filed a brief refuting claims made by the MPAA, and asking the Court to consider the many innocent users who are still unable to access their personal files. The MPAA previously told the court that Megaupload users should only be allowed to get their files back as long as access to copyright-infringing files is blocked. According to Demand Progress this request is practically impossible, against the presumption of innocence, and effectively an attempt to enforce SOPA-like actions through the backdoor.
MegaUpload Kicks FBI In The Teeth In Major Ruling. Remember when the FBI shut down MegaUpload?
Boy, that was sure a win for the federal government! Except, uh, not. Ever since the raid, the US government has consistently been losing in New Zealand courts, where MegaUpload is based. They’ve had to free Kim Dotcom, had to return some of his assets, and, most embarrassingly, had to actually fork over the evidence they have that he was breaking the law. It’s rapidly become clear that the FBI and the Department of Justice did not do any research into where American and New Zealand laws intersect and where there might be issues. And now the case is essentially dead… New Zealand High Court Judge Helen Winkelmann ruled Thursday that the warrants did not adequately describe the offenses alleged… “Indeed they fell well short of that,” she said. Roughly translated, this means the United States can’t use anything it found on those hard drives, if it did happen to find anything, because it’s illegally confiscated.
(Image via Wired) Megaupload Racketeering Conspiracy Exposed by New Evidence. FBI ordered to copy 150 terabytes of data in MegaUpload case. The MegaUpload saga continued earlier this week in a courtroom in New Zealand as a judge has order the US Federal Bureau of Investigation to start copying data from the PCs that were seized from MegaUpload's founder Kim Dotcom.
The New Zealand Herald website reports that the amount of data to be copied by the FBI is a whopping 150 terabytes, including 10 million emails. The FBI seized Dotcom's PCs, along with other property of his, as part of its raid on the MegaUpload file sharing website in January. The US government claims that MegaUpload and its organizers participated in extensive amounts of online content piracy. In late May, another New Zealand judge said that the government had three weeks to turn over the evidence it collected against MegaUpload and Dotcom to their defense lawyers.
In this week's court visit, government lawyers told High Court Justice Helen Winkelmann that there was simply too much data to copy in the court-ordered three week time span.