[dickmc]

The Megaupload seizure shows how personal files hosted on remote servers operated by a third party can easily be caught up in a government raid targeted at digital pirates. But perhaps more importantly, the demise of Megaupload shows that you must be careful about where you trust your data, when picking a cloud service.

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation called the Megaupload seizure and the arrests of four of its key employees in New Zealand one of the "largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States." Federal authorities, dubbing the alleged criminal acts the "Mega Conspiracy," accuse the site of harming copyright holders in excess of $500 million in damages and claim Megaupload earned more than $175 million for its investors and employees.

Before its closure Megaupload had 180 million registered users and an average of 50 million daily visits, claimed a total visitor history of more than one billion, and accounted for about four per cent of all global Internet traffic, according to the indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia.

Megaupload was one of many sites run by the company including Megavideo, a popular site for finding free streaming video of pirated television shows and movies.

Regardless of Megaupload's policies, it appears at least some users were storing files with the company and not bothering to back up the files on a local hard drive. As these users recently discovered, it turns out to be a bad idea to store files with a cloud service that allegedly relies on piracy for a big part of its revenue.

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Incidentally this alert and link came via Risk Digest which regularly tabulates and summarizes actual risks that occur to the public due to improper application of computers and technology. It is a free, very interesting, reporting summary service to subscribe to ...and... can be found at http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks

[Lazamataz]

The Cloud is the biggest hustle in computing, going. You lose control of your own stuff. Someone else can seize it, look at it, even modify it without your knowledge. And in this new era where so much data is 'criminal', you could even be charged with crimes, with zero culpability.

I had not really made up my mind about clound computing, but this just did it for me.

[sten]

the cloud?

you’d have to be a special kind of stupid to think any data held in the ‘cloud’ would not be constantly monitored and analyzed. additionally, to believe that your data wouldn’t be held hostage until a monthly fee is paid is just naive

on top of that, any data not ‘officially approved’ would also disappear

[muawiyah]

Lessons are one thing but satisfaction is quite another.

Irrespective of what the law enforcement authorities did it's almost guaranteed that Megaupload was storing some stuff for criminal elements, and for mentally unstable people somewhere.

It's not over yet. There are stockholders and other investors; there are complainants ~ and revenge is a dish best served cold.

We will probably not even hear about any of it ~ but that's the real lesson. If you are running a data storage business make sure your clients are not dangerous.

[VA40]

Humor me. Megaupload sold storage space right? If you put your belongings in a public storage unit and the "authorities" suspect one unit has drugs or something illegal, could they shut down the business, arrest the owners and confiscate everything in all the units? And how do they come up the the supposed damages, most people if forced to pay to listen/watch, would just simply walk away, right?

[SgtHooper]

“Megaupload users are crying foul after their personal files...was [sic] seized...”

Lie down with dogs, ya just might get up with fleas.

[Deb]

And Kim Dotcom looks to be a charming fellow. Here’s hoping he enjoys a federally sponsored U.S. slim-down.