Tech

Pro-SOPA video late to DOJ’s MegaUpload party, claims US law can’t touch foreign sites

Josh Peterson Contributor
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Five days after the Justice Department’s takedown of popular Hong Kong-based file-sharing network MegaUpload, Hollywood astroturf group Creative America posted an anti-piracy video claiming that U.S. law currently prevents the DOJ from taking down foreign-based sites that facilitate copyright infringement.

The video, meant to sell constituents on the need for Hollywood-backed legislation like the recently stalled bills SOPA and PIPA — the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House and the Protect IP Act in the Senate — spoke of MegaUpload, owned by hacker Kim Schmitz, in the present tense.

“Currently, U.S. law enforcement is only permitted to shut down U.S. based IP addresses,” said the video. “Overseas sites like Schmitz’s MegaUpload and MegaVideo, and the Swedish-based Pirate Bay, are out of reach.”

Not everyone was impressed by Hollywood’s latest public relations move.

“Seriously, the video shows the level of lies that CreativeAmerica and the MPAA will spread to try to pass new, even broader laws,” wrote Mike Masnick at the tech blog TechDirt. “What’s stunning is how blatant they are about it, releasing this video even after events from a week ago already proved it wrong.”

“The individuals and two corporations — Megaupload Limited and Vestor Limited — were indicted by a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia on Jan. 5, 2012, and charged with engaging in a racketeering conspiracy, conspiring to commit copyright infringement, conspiring to commit money laundering, and two substantive counts of criminal copyright infringement,” the Justice Department said in a statement.

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