Feds, Please Return My Personal Files Stored at MegaUpload

Re:Feds, Please Return My Personal Files Stored at MegaUpload by pork on Friday January 20, 2012 @09:19AM (#3489506)

I agree with the sentiment, but in this case, the police raided a private business with probable cause, and will hold all assets of that business as possible evidence in a criminal investigation. If your car is found full of drugs, they will also impound it and inconvenience the other possibly innocent passengers. If they find a body in a storage facility, they will probably deny everyone else access to the facility until they have gathered all the evidence they need.

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Re:Feds, Please Return My Personal Files Stored at MegaUpload by alex_c on Friday January 20, 2012 @10:44AM (#3489816)

If your car is found full of drugs, they will also impound it and inconvenience the other possibly innocent passengers.

While we're coming up with analogies, this seems more like impounding all the other cars in a public parking lot because a percentage of them had drugs.

If they find a body in a storage facility, they will probably deny everyone else access to the facility until they have gathered all the evidence they need.

Shutting down MegaUpload isn't to "gather evidence", it's a punitive, open-ended action.

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Re:Feds, Please Return My Personal Files Stored at MegaUpload by milesskorpen on Friday January 20, 2012 @11:45AM (#3490070)

But if you knew 60% of the cars had drugs, and knew the parking attendants were mixing in drug and non-drug bearing cars to hide the cars with drugs, then I suspect you could get a warrant from a judge.

Yea. Stretching the metaphor.

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Re:Feds, Please Return My Personal Files Stored at MegaUpload by jfoster on Friday January 20, 2012 @09:36AM (#3489561)

That's a reasonable argument to make, but there's a difference between a temporary inconvenience and permanently losing data. It's not yet clear which of those this will be.

Unless the MegaUpload business continues to operate somehow, I can't imagine how they would allow people to access their data once again. Would the police run the business so that people can get their data back? Hard to imagine them absorbing the cost of doing that.

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Re:Feds, Please Return My Personal Files Stored at MegaUpload by JamieEi on Friday January 20, 2012 @11:34AM (#3490020)

Except that probable cause requires a judge to authorize the action and allows supervision of the terms.

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Re:Feds, Please Return My Personal Files Stored at MegaUpload by im3w1l on Friday January 20, 2012 @05:01PM (#3491415)

They could allow people to download their personal files by keeping the site up for a few days after seizing it.

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Re:Feds, Please Return My Personal Files Stored at MegaUpload by jerf on Friday January 20, 2012 @12:00PM (#3490126)

Try to avoid metaphors when dealing with the Internet. It doesn't help understand the situation and just spawns the inevitable thread in which people argue about which inapplicable metaphor is the least inapplicable.

The Feds confiscated a cloud storage service used for both lots of copyright infringement and lots of valid files. The situation isn't so complicated to understand that we need metaphors anyhow.

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Re:Feds, Please Return My Personal Files Stored at MegaUpload by seabee on Friday January 20, 2012 @12:28PM (#3490257)

The problem we're dealing with is not understanding the mechanics of what's going on, but of the legality of it. That's why we reach for the metaphors: to relate it to something that has legal precedence.

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Re:Feds, Please Return My Personal Files Stored at MegaUpload by jerf on Friday January 20, 2012 @01:03PM (#3490418)

Metaphors are even less useful for guessing how a judge will rule in advance than for trying to understand the situation.

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Re:Feds, Please Return My Personal Files Stored at MegaUpload by biot on Friday January 20, 2012 @11:10AM (#3489928)

Police raided a warehouse used for storing alcohol by Al Capone and various other bootleggers. It just so happens that numerous other people used the same warehouse for storing their entirely legitimate possessions. The raid occurred as it did because the warehouse owners had full knowledge that their warehouse was storing illegal merchandise and looked the other way as they were paid handsomely by Al Capone and the other bootleggers for their services.

While police investigate the warehouse's dealings with Al Capone, others are unfortunately inconvenienced as their belongings are inaccessible. Those who had legitimate possessions in storage should question why the warehouse owners put their belongings in jeopardy by knowingly storing illegal material rather than taking responsible measures to curb illegal use.

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Re:Feds, Please Return My Personal Files Stored at MegaUpload by warfangle on Friday January 20, 2012 @12:03PM (#3490142)

That makes sense, if MegaUpload ever goes back up again - doubtful. That makes sense, if the feds return people's private intellectual property - doubtful.

This is more like the FBI burning the warehouse to the ground, with everyone's stuff still inside.

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Re:Feds, Please Return My Personal Files Stored at MegaUpload by biot on Friday January 20, 2012 @12:28PM (#3490256)

In a physical warehouse, keeping people's property would be considered theft as it deprives them of the property. In this case, it's only a copy of the data so there is no theft.

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Re:Feds, Please Return My Personal Files Stored at MegaUpload by prodigal_erik on Friday January 20, 2012 @03:59PM (#3491198)

The feds didn't create a copy, they seized possession of an existing copy and took it offline. That actually deprived users of the contents (at least those who didn't have another copy elsewhere).

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Re:Feds, Please Return My Personal Files Stored at MegaUpload by lawn on Friday January 20, 2012 @01:25PM (#3490510)

Where did I hear this logic before? Oh the hypocrisy...

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Re:Feds, Please Return My Personal Files Stored at MegaUpload by worren on Friday January 20, 2012 @01:55PM (#3490677)

"...burning the warehouse to the ground..."

If you've a militaristic mindset, and there's a bad guy in the warehouse, this is exactly what happens. A siege mentality, and the simplicity and effectiveness of execution reinforce the approach.

"You know the score, pal? You're little people."

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Re:Feds, Please Return My Personal Files Stored at MegaUpload by tantalor on Friday January 20, 2012 @09:07AM (#3489483)

Not only that, but the owners were making money (gasp) by charging users to send letters! And if you want your letter sent really fast, you had to pay extra.

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Re:Feds, Please Return My Personal Files Stored at MegaUpload by ec429 on Friday January 20, 2012 @09:24AM (#3489518)

Moreover, it's a foreign post office and much of the mail is foreign - since when does the FBI have jurisdiction over the entire world?

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Re:Feds, Please Return My Personal Files Stored at MegaUpload by balac on Friday January 20, 2012 @10:11AM (#3489686)

Surely if the servers are located in the US you cannot argue that it is really a foreign post office.

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Re:Feds, Please Return My Personal Files Stored at MegaUpload by ec429 on Friday January 20, 2012 @05:25PM (#3491501)

If some airmail stages through a US airport, does the US have the right to rifle through the mailbags on the plane?

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Re:Feds, Please Return My Personal Files Stored at MegaUpload by atakan_gurkan on Friday January 20, 2012 @06:21PM (#3491725)

Not that I think this analogy holds, but I believe they would have the right, unless there is an international treaty that forbids them from doing so. That's what sovereignty is about. It is a privilege to use a US airport for this purpose, not a right.

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Re:Feds, Please Return My Personal Files Stored at MegaUpload by ig1 on Friday January 20, 2012 @09:19AM (#3489504)

Let's use the example of of a private logistics company who is suspected of say drug smuggling (as in that's their primary business and the logistics part is just a cover to hide drugs among large numbers of packages), should the police only open packages which they're sure of being drugs or would they be remiss in not investigating the other packages which statistically speaking are likely to contain drugs ?

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Re:Feds, Please Return My Personal Files Stored at MegaUpload by Kesty on Friday January 20, 2012 @09:40AM (#3489576)

It depends where you live. In a world where privacy is valued they should not open the other packages if they don't have a valid reason (backed up by a court order). If you start thinkging that "statistically speaking" is a valid reason to violate someone privacy then you are opening a scary pandora's box.

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Re:Feds, Please Return My Personal Files Stored at MegaUpload by scotty79 on Friday January 20, 2012 @12:59PM (#3490404)

That's my main concern. That all the communication that was going through there now is in hands of police and that they feel entitled to read it all. Isn't there some laws in the US that ensure confidentiality of communication unless theres criminal investigation against you?

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Re:Feds, Please Return My Personal Files Stored at MegaUpload by jasonlotito on Friday January 20, 2012 @01:30PM (#3490535)

You forgot the part where the people all still have their letters, and the post office was keeping a copy of that letter.

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