The USA in it’s ignorant and heavy handed way has shut down a file sharing company by the name of Megaupload. It has lifted some data from the servers and frozen the bank accounts of the company. This may sound like a normal thing, but we need to understand a few things.
- Megaupload cannot pay those companies who store its data as their accounts are frozen.
- US prosecutors have broadcast to everyone that the two companies who store the data will begin deleting it on the 2nd Feb. One of the storage companies said it hasn’t spoken with the US Gov so it isn’t sure where it got this information from.
So the US Gov is either lieing about the deletion date for some reason. Like it is watching the data to see who accesses it in order to trap them. Or it has ensured that data that could be of use for the defence will be deleted by ensuring the storage companies aren’t paid. Either way it looks pretty shoddy and downright dishonest.
But again and as equally important is the abuse of the process of natural justice. After the repeal of Habeas Corpus to enable the US Gov to ignore the civil rights of anyone they don’t like the look of, this kind of shutting down affects the innocent as well as the guilty. In fact it treats the innocent as guilty and doesn’t even need the production of any evidence against them. On top of that it doesn’t allow anyone a forum to defend themselves.
This action also puts a brake on the development of new technology like “The Cloud.” Who wants to risk their memories when the US Government arm of the Recording Industry can deny you access to them and erase them by proxy? Business has become so blind to unintended consequences that it doesn’t even think about them anymore.
It is becoming increasingly clear that government is not for the people, well not most of them. It is for the people who buy the politicians. The recording industry joins the banks, big oil and the arms companies as yet another bunch of parasites willing to commit any action while their placemen in government change the laws to make their actions, once a crime, now legal.
Update
If you think my crack about the US Justice Department being the enforcement arm of the Recording Industry check out the illegal and highly spurious activity of the RIAA/MPAA cartel with regards to Megaupload prior to this and the confusion that this action has caused amongst observers.
Piracy is illegal.
You are correct, so go after the pirates, don’t lump everyone else in with them. Blanket punishments are an abuse of civil rights and the basic premises of natural justice.
Unless you work for the 1% where using a sledgehammer to crack a nut appears to be fine.