Even for the US government this seems like a real stretch though. I mean, what did they think was going to happen? There is ostensibly no case here. I would just love to know what their plan was and how they thought it'd lead to the end of Megaupload.
Anyway, as long as the US political system keeps pandering to the whim of Hollywood, the Internet will keep on knocking it out the park.
> I would just love to know what their plan was and how they thought it'd lead to the end of Megaupload.
They arrest they guy, confiscate his property => Megaupload is down. Their job is done.
I am sure they probably sugar-coated it using some superficial motives about starving Hollywood actors and set designers. But in reality it is just pandering to the lobbyist pressure from Hollywood.
I can only hope that someone signed their name without actually using the Internet that much; without realizing what this was. It was bad enough when they ruined a legit hip hop music site. MegaUpload actually has a name, and a willingness to throw the associated clout around. You'd think anyone with the power to do this would have been familiar with them.
If Kim is able to successfully fight back, and get back money/servers/etc, do you think that he won't be able to put it back together again? It would set them apart from other services in that they tussled with the US DoJ (+ MPAA/RIAA) and won.
Why? If he successfully defeats them in court, I don't see how the government would have an 'in' to monitor the site. If they settled, that's another story (especially if the settlement terms were not public).
The government doesn't have to monitor the site. Just the threat alone of confiscating servers so that regular users lose access to their data is enough. Dotcom can totally win this case, restore his service, and the government hits him again six months later over new infringements. That's a risk many will not take.
In my opinion this action has possibly ruined the future growth of cloud services. I've always been leery of using a third-party server you do not control and the government showing it has no problems shutting that server down, whether it has anything to do with you or not, is a serious problem to consider.
Plus, since hosting services will often put multiple websites on the same box then that's a potential problem to consider. One we've seen before.
What if this happened to Dropbox? What if this happened to Apple's iCloud? Sure, people will say that will never happen but history is full of people saying similar things.
They thought they'd break him, that he'd capitulate and grovel. Take his money, deplete him of resources to fight, and that'd be that. They also counted on New Zealand justice not being any problem to roll over.
Anyway, as long as the US political system keeps pandering to the whim of Hollywood, the Internet will keep on knocking it out the park.