You're innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, but that phrase isn't a magic totem that gets you out of bad message board arguments. This is a community of nerds. Nerds are literalists and also pretty well-versed with piracy. Why are you wasting breath trying to convince them that MegaUpload wasn't a hub for piracy? It clearly was.
The link removal you're talking about did not "disable access" to the material; it only disabled access to it through that one removed link. This "linking" argument is just sophistry.
Also: comparing Rapidshare and MegaUpload to Youtube is sapping your credibility.
>Nerds are literalists and also pretty well-versed with piracy. Why are you wasting breath trying to convince them that MegaUpload wasn't a hub for piracy? It clearly was.
So? It was also a hub for legitimate file storage. And this is why I keep bringing up other file sharing sites and youtube, as every single argument you're making could equally be applied to them.
> it only disabled access to it through that one removed link
Which is kind of the whole bloody point. Look at it from a frontend/backend perspective. On the front end, access to a file is removed once a given link is killed. You, nor anybody else in the general public can access the targeted file once that link is dead. Unless the file is either re-uploaded, or another link is found, that is.
Google has an obvious interest in the legal particulars of linking to infringing content, but that doesn't mean that Google runs its business in the same fashion as MegaUpload.
Deduping, and my other thoughts are two links up. You say "sophistry", and it very well may be, but this is the legal system we're talking about here. Standard logic and definitions need not apply, unfortunately.
From internal emails within the Mega group, regarding rewards paid under their "Upload Rewards" program:
100 USD [USERNAME DELETED] 10+ Full popular DVD rips (split files), a few small porn movies, some software with keygenerators (warez)
...
100 USD [USERNAME DELETED] Popular DVD rips
100 USD [USERNAME DELETED] Some older DVD rips + unknown (Italian series?) rar files
...
Again, under the DMCA, it is not enough to simply respond to takedown notices. To qualify for safe harbor immunity to copyright liability, you have to not be aware of any infringement on your site, and if you become aware of it, you must expediently remove that content from your site.
These clowns became aware of copyright infringement and then paid people for it. They're fucked. I have no idea why you think this linking issue matters.
The link removal you're talking about did not "disable access" to the material; it only disabled access to it through that one removed link. This "linking" argument is just sophistry.
Also: comparing Rapidshare and MegaUpload to Youtube is sapping your credibility.