Interesting situation, indeed. Let's not forget he has yet to be found guilty for any of the charges. And if he's tried and found not guilty, who's going to repay all the time and money lost because his site was down?
It's like the FBI came in and demolished his store to take away the bricks as evidence - if he's found not guilty, I doubt they're going to rebuild it for him.
They just needed someone to make an example of - there are dozens of other sharing sites out there (hell, many of them even have "warez" in their name), and yet they chose Megaupload, one of the biggest, with a brazen in-your-face owner (last time I checked, that wasn't a crime).
It seems to have worked, though - Filesonic disabled sharing, for example, and other sites must've done something similar...
Not to mention future damages. I think even if Megaupload is brought back up the chances of it reclaiming it's past glory anytime soon will take quite a while. Who's going to trust the site to store their files now?
Would a non-Megaupload site be any safer? The message I take away from this is to never host anything in the US, and if possible live in a country without diplomatic relations with the US.
It's like the FBI came in and demolished his store to take away the bricks as evidence - if he's found not guilty, I doubt they're going to rebuild it for him.
They just needed someone to make an example of - there are dozens of other sharing sites out there (hell, many of them even have "warez" in their name), and yet they chose Megaupload, one of the biggest, with a brazen in-your-face owner (last time I checked, that wasn't a crime).
It seems to have worked, though - Filesonic disabled sharing, for example, and other sites must've done something similar...