On Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 3:02 PM, Leo Bicknell <bickn...@ufp.org> wrote: > In a message written on Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 09:37:16AM -1000, Paul Graydon > wrote: >> From what I understand about MegaUpload's approach, they created a hash >> of every file that they stored. If they'd already got a copy of the >> file that was to be uploaded they'd just put an appropriate link in a >> users space, saving them storage space, and bandwidth for both parties. >> Fairly straight forward. Whenever they received a DMCA take-down they >> would remove the link, not the underlying file, so even though they knew >> that a file was illegally hosted, they never actually removed it. That >> comes up for some argument about the ways the company should be >> practically enforcing a DMCA take-down notice, whether each take-down >> should apply to just an individual user's link to a file or whether the >> file itself should be removed. That could be different from >> circumstance to circumstance. > > Note that with A DMCA take down the original uploader can issue a > counter-notice to get the content put back. Most sites don't > immediately delete the content but rather disable it in some way > so that should the file be counter noticed it can be put back up. > > Also, when using a hashed file store, it's possible that some uses > are infringing and some are not. I might make a movie, put it on > Megaupload, and then give the links only to the 5 people who bought > it from them. One of them might turn around, upload it again to > Megaupload, and share it with the world, infringing on my content. > I would hope that when I issue a takedown notice they take down the > infringers copy (link), but leave mine in place. > > None of this should be taken to mean I'm behind Megaupload. I have
My take only, of course > a greater concern here wondering if law enforcement, maybe > the courts, probably not > and most importantly the law makers You've got to be kidding. > understand the technolgy and > can craft and apply laws in a reasonable way. "A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it." -- Max Planck, We're in for an interesting few years. > One major issue that > already came up is that a whole lot of people used Megaupload for > storing perfectly legal content. It's now offline, and there appears to > be no way for them to retrieve that data. At what percentage is that > reasonable? If 99% of your users are infringing? 50%? 1%? Could this > be used to take down your competitors? Buy some Amazon instances and > put a bunch of infringing content on them, and then watch the feds seize > all of Amazon's servers? > Maybe. It would help if you had a budget to lobby Congress sufficiently. Regards Marshall > Lots of troubling questions, no good answers. > > -- > Leo Bicknell - bickn...@ufp.org - CCIE 3440 > PGP keys at http://www.ufp.org/~bicknell/